Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc : Deaths Angel
by Zephyr5
Summary: Rated for language and violence, shounen ai SxS, QxZ. The events of History Repeating made both sides reassess the situation, but when the storm finally breaks the enemy may lie closer to home than anyone thinks...
1. Destinys Fortune

AN: Well, this is the first chapter of the sequel to History Repeating and it's rather death filled.  Btw, I'm splitting this into 'books', and at the mo it looks like there's gonna be bout seven inc History Repeating.

Disclaimers: ff8 characters aren't mine, sniffles  they are © Squaresoft – who won't give them to me, meanies! – but original characters and creations are mine, so I have to take full responsibility for their crappiness :)

Warnings: Character death, angst, language, graphic violence, general darkness.  Basically, don't read if you can't bear to see any of the ff8 crew die, be tortured or be taken control of.  Also probably not a good idea to read if you have a graphic imagination and a weak stomach

**Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter One Destiny's Fortune**

Things always change.  Mainly for the better, but there are always moments you could look back on and wonder, with hindsight, that maybe if another path had been taken, if there might be nothing to regret...

Seifer stared at the ruins of Trabia Garden.  There was only one thing that could have caused the damage and destruction, clear even from where he stood.  A sorceress.  Moreover, a sorceress determined to crush everyone within the Garden before they knew what was happening – never mind before they could react either defensively or offensively.  He didn't want to think how many had perished – although part of his mind was methodically estimating the number of casualties – didn't want to dwell on the knowledge that both Selphie and Irvine were amongst the dead.  Later, when the survivors didn't need him to be strong, in command – later, when he and Squall could grieve together, then he would let himself understand that two people who had virtually grown up with him, were gone forever.

Fortunately – for his mind was morbidly counting its blessings even as it counted the dead – Trabia was the smallest of the three Gardens.  Add to that the almost too coincidental timing of the rank evaluation and SeeD exams, and really Squall had done better out of the whole incident than Kylari.  Over thirty cadets taking or re-taking their SeeD exam, and around forty full SeeDs of varying ranks.  Plus Kylari had blatantly demonstrated her intentions were hostile.  Yes, Squall had done almost too well out of this...

Frowning, and making a mental note to grill Squall over the issue later, Seifer gathered the cadets under his command together, and began to lead them down the mountain, back towards what was left of their home.  There were unlikely to be any survivors amidst the carnage, but a search had to be made, just in case.

There had been no survivors.  Not in the end.  Magic could only do so much, and once beyond that point the only mercy was a swift end...  Somehow a few of those within the Garden had been unfortunate enough not to have been killed outright in Kylari's attack.  It had been left to Seifer and a couple of other, older SeeDs, to bring that mercy to them.  It wasn't something any of them felt could be asked of the cadets, most of whom were too busy weeping on one another's shoulders to be of much help at all.

Squall's voice had been tight and colder than usual when Seifer radioed for further instructions.  He sounded furious, perhaps even as though he blamed those who had survived for the disaster – but only to those who didn't know him.  Seifer could tell his voice was tight with the effort of not surrendering to his emotions, could feel the tears the sorcerer was fighting back.  But more importantly, he could feel the frantic relief that there were survivors, and especially that Seifer had not been caught in Kylari's attack.  It was the latter that convinced him that, however low the probability of both the SeeD exam and the rank evaluation tests taking place on the day Kylari finally moved against the 'sorcerer', it was pure blind luck.

AN: short chapter grins  just a little teaser to make sure you really wanna read the impending darkness.  All Selvine fans who are about to explode and napalm me, I will make it up by doing a selvine of some sort...  sometime...  honest... grins I will, when I get time and if I can catch the right mood :) – til then check out 'Cowboys and Kisses'

REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1:

Reviewer: catsMarch5

Date: 01/11/2002

For Chapter: 1

Review:  I read the first story and felt that it need more. So I'm happy that there is a sequel to it.

         The strange thing is that I like reading darkish types of fiction.

         So I don't really care about who dies and so forth.

Author's Response:   Good o :)  Hope this is dark enough for your taste.  And yes, don't worry, I'm working on the sequel at present ;)

Reviewer: Drake

Date: 04/11/2002

For Chapter: 1

Review:  Ooooo! You read my review Zephyr-sama AND acknowledged me! I feel particularly special. And what a teaser you have here. SHAME ON U!  Interested I am, write more u please!

Author's Response:   grins  I'm glad you feel special.  I do try and acknowledge people who review my work as I'm working, but I'm afraid those who read and review after the next chapter's been written may not be so lucky - gomen, I'm lazy I know.  Rest assured, even if I don't respond, I do make an effort to read reviews and take their points on board.

                     And I will, of course, continue to write ;)  But don't expect me to give up teasers and cliff-hangers!

Reviewer: (Anonymous)

Date: 02/12/2002

For Chapter: 1

Review:  I don't mean to be rude but do u mind putting a yaoi warning in the summary, because I'm not a big fan of yaois and if the warning isn't int the summary I get really disturbed when AI read into the story.

Author's Response:   Ooops O.o  my bad.  Apologies to you and anyone else similarly caught out.  I could point out that the summary states this is a sequel to History Repeating, and that summary has a yaoi warning, but yes, I admit it was an oversight (now corrected) on my part there.  Gomen all!


	2. Trust

AN: Thankie to Drake and catsMarch5 – I dunno when everythings gonna go dark – I kinda lost the original mood somewhat, but I do have a plot glomps plot daemon and I do intend sniggers to keep to it...kinda...uh, yeah ;;

Warnings: Xu bashing whistles innocently (')o(')

**Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Two Trust**

If Kylari had moved fast – albeit after two years of letting them hold their breath in anticipation – then Squall moved equally fast, if not faster.  By the time the survivors, and Seifer, reached the shore – where Squall had said they would be picked up – two light cruisers (1) and a sleek new troop carrier were waiting.

Most of the Trabians gaped at the carrier, but Seifer guessed Squall had commandeered it from Galbadia Garden's new fleet – currently engaged in war games just off the Eldbeak Peninsular.  Quite how he had commandeered it, Seifer wasn't sure.

The journey back lasted long enough for Seifer to begin brooding.  In the past two years since he had learnt the truth about Squall and become his knight, the same two years since Kylari had revealed herself – and her intentions, if not her motives – they had managed to discover nothing about the sorceress.

Every avenue of enquiry – obscure as of necessity – had turned up nothing.  It seemed that no sooner had Kylari appeared, threatening Squall, and nearly sending himself insane, than she had disappeared.  Of course, as their experiences with Ultemecia's possession of Edea had shown, appearances could be deceiving.  They had speculated... but it was possible to speculate until caterchipillars learned to fly, and still not grasp reality.

Easy Seifer.  Squall's voice in his mind snapped Seifer out of his introspective moment, and into awareness of the fact that the cruiser was moored in Balamb harbour.

"Mister Almasy, Sir!"  Seifer spun around at the sudden noise, reflexively drawing Hyperion as he turned...

Senior Cadet Cora Demare, of the former Trabia Garden, felt the blood drain from her face.  She blinked several times in nervous shock, only refraining from swallowing because of the feather-light touch of Hyperion's razor-sharp edge, warning that to swallow would be to commit suicide...  Shit, she hadn't realised he was so fast...

"Who dared you to try and creep up on Seifer Almasy?"

I should never have taken up the dare – this is a stupid way to die!  Cora thought, jumping as someone spoke behind her, and fully expecting to hit the deck needing medical attention.  Damn.  He really is fast.  Hyperion was, fortunately, gone.  It had been sheathed so quickly that Cora might have doubted it had ever been at her throat – except for the spots of blood that decorated her fingers after she put her hand to her neck.

Not wanting to turn her back on Seifer, but also wanting to see who had nearly gotten her to decapitate herself on Hyperion's edge, Cora turned sideways...and let out a soft 'eep' of surprise and consternation.

This was bad – very bad.  Caught in a small room between Seifer Almasy and Commander Leonhart – a pair legendary for their spontaneous duels.  It didn't matter that – according to rumour – they hadn't fought since the end of the war against Ultemecia, or even – according to gossip – that the two were acting almost...friendly...  It didn't matter...

"Cadet?"

Uh oh, what was the question?  Cora thought desperately, trying to recall the words that had made her jump in the first instance.  Fortunately her mouth seemed to remember without her, speaking up without conscious thought.

"One of the Balamb Cadets, Commander Sir!"  She paused.  "Don't know their name."  There was a barely audible sound of acknowledgement, more a change in the silence than anything.

"Well, as you've discovered, it's not a good idea to creep up on Seifer – or on any veteran of the war."

"Oi, Leonhart!  I am here you know."  Seifer sounded pissed off, and Cora – rumour and gossip be damned – wisely took a step away from him, incidentally leaving the path between the two fighters clear.  Squall, however, ignored Seifer's comment.

"You might want to advise the other Trabian Cadets, on my behalf, against accepting such dares.  Dismissed."  Cora scurried out through the door, feeling as if a death sentence had just been repealed.

"I could almost think this whole thing was planned..."  The words – festering in his thoughts – were out before he could stop them.  Squall's expression hardened, but Seifer felt the hurt the brunette was hiding.  "I didn't mean that!  Squall...?"  But his sorcerer was turning away.  "Dammit Squall!"

"I thought you'd begun to trust me over the last two years..."  Squall muttered sadly.

"And I thought you'd learnt to let me finish what I'm saying."  Seifer snapped back.  It wasn't his fault that what he said always sounded wrong, or could be misinterpreted, unless someone heard him out.  He was a fighter, not a diplomat.  The brunette stopped in the doorway.

"Finish it then."  Seifer stepped up behind him, folding his arms around the smaller man's waist, and resting his chin on Squall's shoulder.  He firmly resisted the brunette's attempts to discretely shrug him off.

"Stop being paranoid."  The blond muttered.  "I reckon...Selphie..." his voice threatened to break as his mind reminded him harshly of the fact that Selphie was dead, and wouldn't be writing any more secrets in her diaries.  "I reckon she knew you had a crush on me before you did.  And if she knew, so does everyone else."  It was scary how easily the past tense came to his lips, and dangerous ground around Squall if the incident in Galbadia Garden had been faithfully recorded.

"Yes, but they don't remember."  Squall pointed out.  He stopped trying to prise himself free though.  "Now, finish what you were saying."

"Yes Sir!"  Seifer knew his sorcerer well enough to know that, despite being said in the brunette's 'teasing' voice – i.e. with a temperature a full half degree above absolute zero – he was painfully serious.  He could feel the tension in the body he was holding, Squall just waiting for the hurt he had come to assume was inevitable in his life.

"I could almost have thought this was planned..." he began again.  "Except that there's no way even you could have gotten both the SeeD exam and the rank evaluations to be held on such short notice."

Squall forced himself to relax, and heard a sigh of relief from the blond behind him.

"Well, now that's cleared up..." he decided, finally managing to wriggle free of his knight's protective embrace, "I need you to organise the survivors."  Seifer groaned.  Wasn't that supposed to be Squall or Quistis's job?  "I want as many in Balamb Garden as possible."  The brunette continued.  "The rest will have to go to Galbadia, which means I have to inform Martine of the situation."  Well, that explained why Squall couldn't do it.  He had the unenviable task of deciding who needed to know what, and making sure that they knew it.

"What about Xu?"  Squall felt Seifer flinch as a wave of cold fury almost visibly rolled from him at the mention of Xu's name.  It was somewhat of a taboo to mention her in his vicinity ever since the busty brunette – nicknamed the 'bitch queen' by Zell, of all people – had vetoed Seifer's return to Garden as a full, albeit honorary, SeeD.  Shortly after the blond had returned, Xu had handed in a request to transfer to Galbadia.  It seemed to have been prompted by several things.  Firstly she had made the mistake of attempting to go over his head – contacting Cid in an effort to get Seifer's return to Garden vetoed.  That had earned her not one, but two reprimands, one official and the other unofficial.  The final straw – or one of many final straws – had been Cid's firm insistence that she would not be getting the position of headmistress.

"I'll let Martine deal with her."

"Shouldn't Quis be the one vetting newcomers?"  Seifer queried.  Squall shook his head.

"You're faster, and you're also better at picking out the best.  Besides, as you well know, Quistis and Zell are both on a covert mission."

Squall turned in time to see Seifer nod and walk away – heading for the harbour and the large group of traumatised cadets and SeeDs.  All he had to do now was erase that morning's call to Trabia...

AN: ahhh, cute SxS :)  Only a little angst in this chapter, and not too much darkness :)  Trust me when I say it'll get worse, just don't ask me when – my angst/darkness daemon tends to pounce without warning 

(1) – think the cruisers from the SeeD exam in the game, but with a little less armour, and a sleeker shape i.e. speed.  In my mind light cruisers are the SeeD navy equivalent of scouts/light cavalry – they're there to hit and run, escort slower ships, transport infantry etc.

Oh yeah, and if people are getting confused as regards who's speaking when, let me know and I'll start sticking in POV headings :) – you should be able to figure it out from what's said tho


	3. Shades of Memory

AN: Expect random gore from here on in :)

Disclaimers: Only original characters are mine – evry1 else is Squaresofts :(

Warnings: Violence, gore, language, um – expect them all to crop up sporadically, tho not necessarily in the same (or even this) chapter, as with most authors, I am now bored of writing warnings and disclaimers, so unless a muse comes up with something I find especially amusing, these are the last you'll see.  After all, fics are given ratings for a reason, and what one of us authors has the cash to be owning any of the ffviii crew?

Only one other thing, the writing style for this is quite different to the other chapters (so far).  Bear with it, the style fits the mood and so on ;)

**Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Three Shades of Memory**

]I had a child, I remember...  A beautiful child, a daughter...  Where's my daughter mommy?

I remember her so clearly...  Her hair, so long and fine...  Why did she cut her hair mommy?

Her eyes were the sweetest brown...  The colour of chocolate...  Why are her eyes golden mommy?[

Make the voices stop...

]I always wanted a child...  Flesh and blood of my own...  Where do babies come from daddy?

A daughter to make a woman...  A son to make a man...  Why can't I have both daddy?[

...stop...

]Did I have a not-child?  A ghost?  A phantom?  I remember her...I remember her not...  He loves me...she loves me not...  Can I come home now grandmother?  I don't want to play any more...[

STOP!!

Silence.  Blissful, blessed, beautiful silence.  The absence of sound, and insanity.  But if two madmen call each other crazy, whom is to be believed?  Besides, silence is such a long word for that which rarely lingers more than a few moments...

/Little lambs and birds and bees/

Why?

/Sunlight shine beneath the trees/

Why did you do this to me?

/Flowers and grass and dust and dirt/

What threat did I pose to you?

/Shelter me so I can't hurt/

Well your plan backfired.  I escaped and you don't even suspect.  And I will have my revenge on all of you.  Especially you...

/See a fishy in the sea/

But first I need to make you real.  Can't be killing your phantom can I...  No fun in that at all...

]Phantoms?  My child's a phantom.  Here but not here...  There but not there...[

/Any grave is home to me/

Too many voices...  Voices of the dead...  Those beyond the veil...  I can hear them laughing, laughing...

/See a birdie in the sky/

]Birds flying...  Did my daughter have wings?  Is that why she's a phantom?  No wings, and no knight to catch her as she fell...[

I'll stop their laughter.  Stop it forever...  The sorcerer...  He holds the power, guards the dead against my revenge...  So close when we attacked Trabia...  He wanted to unleash it then... Wanted to attack whilst we looked in another direction...

/All my life I live to die/

]Die...  Dead...  Is my daughter dead?[

Why didn't he?  Are we stronger?  Does he fear us?

#We'll make him fear us.  We'll kill his friends, his 'family'.  We'll take our revenge and we'll show him just how powerless, how useless he really is.  And in the end we'll take everything.  Take his knight, his life, and his power...  And then we'll show them all the true meaning of Hell on Earth...#

We should have left Trabia alone...  Let him wait and wait for an attack that never came...

/It's raining, it's pouring.../

Should have gone with that plan...  Quietly, quietly, building our strength...

]Not quiet...  Never quiet...  Can you hear them screaming for mercy?  Can you hear them?  Mommy?  Daddy?  Is that my daughter screaming?[

/The old man is snoring.../

Shouldn't have let them see our intentions...  Not until they were powerless to stop us...

Kylari sits, curled around herself, perched high off the ground upon a tall ivory column.  She is so still that she appears to be a statue, her wings and figure so artfully carved that they appear real.  Her eyes though...  Her eyes blaze golden-yellow like twin suns, casting a faint yellow light onto her pale cheeks.

Her gaze is fixed on a point that no mortal could see, a point in time as well as space.  But her eyes do not glow red - she is not angry.  She is terrified...

/He went to bed, and bumped his head.../

She sees them, the righteous mob, gathering around her like moths circling a candle.  Just let them come close enough – she will show them how the flame burns...  Or she would.  Because this mob is prepared.  This mob is an Estharian militia, and they are led by one of Adel's pet sorceresses...and she has a knight.  Kylari knows she is no match for the other, at least, not if it falls to sheer strength...

They tormented me, relentlessly.  I did nothing to them, and yet they taunted and teased, beat and abused me.  They used me to bait a trap for the one person who cared, and then they killed her.  Beat her to death as I watched, powerless...  And they have the nerve to question why I killed them...  They have the nerve to call me evil, insane...

/And couldn't get up in the morning.../

Of course I was insane!  I was insane with the need for revenge.  Hyne gifted me with her powers, not their stupid wench – why else, unless for me to take my revenge?  And I will.  Our kind have laboured to be accepted for too long.  We will never be accepted unless we make ourselves slaves, and I will not be a slave again!

#Traitors will pay...  I will kill their knights...  I will see the blood mixed with tears, and I will have my revenge...#

She sees them again, years later, and her blood howls with rage, the voices in her head screaming words of hate over and over...  And she does nothing...  Not yet.  For they have nothing to lose except their lives, and she is powerless to take those with anything approaching the lingering deaths she intends.  Yet...

I waited...  I was patient...  Too patient...

/I didn't go and play with the fairies mommy.  Have I been a good girl?/

]Yes, a good girl...[

For now they have turned to dust, as all mortal things that live and die are wont to do with the passing of ages.  They are all dust, except for two...  The one who is not mortal, and who, like her, feels time pass, but passes time at her own pace...and her knight. 

Of those who are dust, however, only their ever-grinning skulls remain.  Mocking her with their silent smirks.  Taunting the fact that, though her reach be long, she cannot cross the great divide between life and death.  She cannot reach their 'dear departed' souls.  They are beyond her vengeance, for now, and so they terrify her with their words.  For the dead see the truth, the truth of the past, the truth of the present, and the truth of the future.  And without any way to exert her control, she cannot know if their words are truth or lies.  She cannot know if her plans are truly doomed to fail, or if she will extract even a small measure of the vengeance she desires.  She cannot know...

AN: Hmm... considering I've actually got a plot for this fic - shock! horror!  a plot! :O – this wasn't quite how I planned for this chapter to go frowns I've gotta do something about training my muses to do what I want sighs oh well, no one's complained yet – hint, hint – RxR :)

And the above AN remains true – truer if that's even possible o.O  This just kinda went...weird – no, wyrd

Anyway, if you haven't already guessed, Kylari's got some serious mental issues going on :)  Fruit loop central...  I'm not going to say too much about each personality, as it will give bits of the plot away, but suffice to say that the personality in the angle brackets is the dominant (read sanest and most commonly seen) of the bunch.

And now, with added background!  Hallelujah!  I actually know Kylari's full background! dances

REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1

Reviewer: Magical Mage

Date: 07/11/2002

For Chapter: 3

Review:  This is catsMarch5, I just decided to change my name.

Anyways, interesting chapter with Kylari along with the foreshadowing asnd so forth.  I'm a bit confused on why Kylari couldn't stand the grinning skulls but I guess I'll find out in later chapters.

Author's Response:   having looked up the meaning of foreshadowing (I just do stuff, then I learn it has a technical name!) I then actually realised where I'd gone wrong with what I'd intended for the chapter.  Hence the fact that almost nothing survived the rewrite   Now (hopefully) the chapter is interesting and extremely confusing, but Kylari's motives are a bit clearer - along with the grinning skulls phobia for anyone who read/remembers the previous version.


	4. Without Conscience

AN: caution!  Implied Lemon alert!  mmm...lemons...goes dreamy eyed

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Four Without Conscience 

It was the work of a moment to delete any and all traces of the call to Trabia.  Thanks to Ansiko.  Of course, the GF was being his usual helpful self...

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

"Cut the crap Ansiko.  You keep calling this a game, well remember, the stakes just happen to be my life and the world – in that order.  So I'll hang onto the few pieces I have using every trick I know."

You still shouldn't lie to him.

"So I should do what?  Tell him that I deliberately sacrificed Irvine and Selphie along with a bunch of SeeDs and cadets whose names I never knew?  Even you should know better than that."

You risk driving him further away when he discovers the truth.

"As long as you don't go blabbing he won't discover the truth."

You told him I was impossible.  That was the catalyst for his near-breakdown you know.

"No it wasn't.  He got caught in a mind trap the sorceress left for me.  The catalyst was me telling him he'd only been out of the infirmary for a couple of minutes – obviously the hallucinations blended into reality and made it seem longer.  It was the same thing that Ultemecia did to break his mind four years ago.  Besides, you are impossible.  You're also difficult, awkward, and how about, insufferable."

...

"Exactly.  Now why don't you do something useful and go back to searching for that data on the pendant."

As you command.

Squall sighed in relief as he felt the GF's attention turn away from him, felt its presence recede into the depths of the uncharted memory banks of the Garden computer system.  Ansiko really was insufferable at times.  It was as though the GF had decided to take on the role of his conscience – which was working just fine.  He knew his conscience was working fine, because there was a tiny part of his mind kicking the shit out of another part of his mind over the whole Trabia incident.  But he was used to that.  Those parts of his mind were always fighting over something.  Usually it was over whether he could have done something more to prevent something occurring, but of course, that wasn't an issue here.  He knew he could have done something more.  He could have prevented the whole incident by intervening directly, revealing himself as a sorcerer, and essentially handing victory to Kylari on a plate, with a side garnish of the support of every living sorceress, and most of the world's population.  A hero's image would only get you so far. 

It would come eventually, he wasn't idiot enough to fool himself into thinking he could act behind the scenes and win this war.  But it had to be eventually, when there was no longer a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.  Hopefully by that point he would have forced Kylari into revealing her hand.  Then the world's choice would be simple.  Band with a sorcerer – who just so happened to have been one of the key forces involved in defeating the last evil sorceress, and also just so happened to be the son of the president of the most powerful country in the world – against a common foe, or admit defeat there and then.  Not that he was overly confident of success anyway.  Squall had long ago learned to trust his gut instincts, and they were telling him, in no uncertain terms, that this was going to be too close to call.

For now though, he had calls to make.

5 minutes later

"What's Esthar's stand on the situation going to be Kiros?"  The dark-skinned man thought for a moment.  He was remarkably calm given the information Squall had spent the last minute explaining.

"I'd have to discuss with Laguna, but I'm reasonably certain he will be amenable to following Balamb Garden's lead in this matter."  Squall nodded.

"There's a possibility that Kylari, or another sorceress, may come after Ellone.  She should be informed of the situation.  If she decides to return I need to know."  Kiros inclined his head thoughtfully.

"I doubt she will return.  If anything it may make her more determined to remain in isolation.  But I will pass on your message and inform you of her decisions."

"Thank you Kiros.  I'll call if there's any further developments."  Squall hit the 'call end' button with a sigh of relief.  He hated making calls to Esthar.  After all, how were you supposed to address the best friend of your estranged father?  Someone whose mind one of your friends had shared, who held a lower rank - if wielding the same political power - than you, and was older by a couple of decades at least?  Fortunately Kiros didn't seem to mind what Squall called him – within reason of course.

President Caraway of Galbadia, however, was a much simpler man to address.  Either President or General was perfectly acceptable, which suited Squall fine.  Actually getting to the point of being able to address the man, on the other hand, was enough to make less patient men, and women, tear their hair out in frustration.

Today, however, was one day when Squall could say for certain that the secretary was not lying when she calmly informed him that 'President General Caraway' was unable to take his call.  He also knew that the girl was trustworthy – because, for all the 'ditzy blonde' act, she was a SeeD operative.  An added security measure, if you like, who had been given the job of playing secretary, and acting as a bodyguard to the current President.  Squall was damned if he was going to make it easy for any revolutionaries – or anyone else with ambition – to remove the one man able to hold Galbadia together without declaring war on another nation.

Still, Squall was grateful that Caraway was 'unable to take the call'.  He was able to give the main points to the secretary, avoiding the three minute call becoming a half-hour grilling session.  Admittedly the grilling session would only be deferred for as long as it took Caraway to return and get the details from his secretary, but it was breathing time Squall had no intention of wasting.  After all, he still had the leaders of Fisherman's Horizon, Winter Island, Dollet and Timber to inform of Kylari's attack and the possibility of yet another sorceress war.  Plus he had to bite the proverbial bullet and call Martine, warning the Galbadian Headmaster of the possibility that they would be the sorceress's next target, and that they were going to have to deal with an influx of now-homeless Trabian SeeDs and cadets.

Three hours and five calls later, and Squall had run out of patience for the day.  With a weary sigh he thankfully turned off the terminal...

The quiet snick of the lock opening was loud in the silence of the room, and snapped Squall out of his weary contemplation of the blank terminal screen.

"...try.  OK?"  Seifer slid almost bonelessly through the barely opened door, shutting and leaning against it with a put-upon sigh of exhaustion.  The lock clicked shut again as he stood straighter, looking relieved. "I finally finished assigning SeeDs and cadets."  The blond waved a handful of papers in Squall's direction, stalking forwards so that he could plonk them unceremoniously on the desk, ignoring any and all of the work already lying there.  Squall raised an eyebrow.

"Try what?"  Seifer blinked, confused by the seeming non-sequitur.  "Oh!"  Realisation dawned.  "Uh...Dr Kadowaki wants me to get you to reassure everyone...or something..."  Squall stifled a laugh.  It seemed he wasn't the only one who automatically stopped listening the instant the good doctor opened her mouth.  On the other hand, she did have a point.  Best to address the Garden sooner rather than later, when rumour and gossip had taken a firm hold.  What, exactly, was he supposed to say though?  He couldn't very well tell them the truth, and the half-truths he had told were hardly reassuring.

"Stop brooding on it.  Just tell them what's happened, and that we're going to a war footing in response...  We are going to a war footing, aren't we?"  Seifer interrupted his internal monologue.  A knight to the rescue...  Squall smiled wryly at the thought.

"Yeah.  Not that we know where she is, but still...  Yeah."  Shooting a glare at the blond that clearly said 'distract me in any way and die' – to which Seifer, correctly interpreting the expression, contrived to look innocent – Squall depressed the comm. button.  "Attention, this is Commander Leonhart speaking.  As most of you know by now, this morning Trabia Garden was destroyed by a sorceress.  As a direct response to this new threat I am placing Balamb Garden on a heightened state of alert.  A memorial will be held for those lost in the attack once the casualty list has been finalised, sometime in the next few days.  That is all."  Looking not nearly half as relieved as he felt, Squall switched the Garden-wide communications off.  Seifer sighed.

"Typically Squall-ish, but what's new there?"  He muttered.  Squall glowered at him, then, in a sudden burst of childishness, stuck his tongue out.  Seifer blinked, wondering if he was so tired that he'd started to see things.  Squall chuckled at the expression on his knight's face.

"I was just thinking how much worse today could have been."  He explained.  Seifer grinned mischievously.  Squall watched his knight warily.  "What?"

"Oh," Seifer purred, his voice making it clear what direction his thoughts were drifting in.  "Just thinking how much better today still can be..."  Squall's eyebrow quirked upwards, matched by one side of his mouth as he smirked suggestively at the blond.

"Just thinking?"  Squall mused, sounding almost regretful.  "Care to share?"  Seifer chuckled huskily.

"Well really, it's the kind of thought that has to be shared..."  He followed Squall's movement with his eyes as the brunette slowly stalked around the desk, the question of when the roles had been reversed flitting briefly across his mind just before the sorcerer pounced...

AN: Hehehe, finally, a lemon...well, implied anyway   This is why they had to get a lock for Squall's office – I have the kind of muses that would have sent some poor, unsuspecting person walking into the unlocked office whilst Seifer and Squall were...umm...otherwise engaged ;;

Anyway, my reasons/excuses for leaving it as implied:

1. I really wanted this chapter finished before moving on with the other chapters

2. My muses just didn't want to write a full lemon, not least for worrying about complying with the R rating

3. Um...yeah, that's it – gomen :(

REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1

Reviewer: Magical Mage

Date: 02/12/2002

For Chapter: 4

Review:  Well, I don't really care about Rinoa. I'm not a hater or a fan of her. So whatever happens to her I don't care.

Author's Response:  Oh good - someone won't hate me then ;)  Hope you enjoy the rest of the series, thanks for the review!

Reviewer: Ezekiel Klitiras

Date: 02/12/2002

For Chapter: 4

Review:  nice....interesting...continue.

Author's Response:  will do!  Thanks for reviewing!


	5. Gone, But Not Quite

AN: woohoo, here's the latest chapter of one of my more popular fics scratches head not that I know why it's so popular – or was at least...

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Five Gone...But Not Quite 

The first thing that Squall saw when he switched on his terminal the next morning were two urgent messages.  One from Esthar and the other from Galbadia, both countries where he hadn't managed to speak directly to the people in power the previous night.  That was confusing, although not totally unexpected.  If Laguna and Caraway had checked in with their respective 'secretaries' overnight, then there would undoubtedly be questions – questions that they would class urgent.  But he couldn't see either Kiros or Caraway's SeeD panicking to this extent. 

With a heavy sense of foreboding he opened the message from Esthar...

Life in the Garden went on, no matter what else was happening in the world.  Seifer had the proof of that in front of him.  An inbox stacked dangerously high with requisition forms and entry requests vied with the mission request portfolios for attention – although currently all his attention was on the exam papers Quistis had, somehow, before leaving on her current mission, managed to con him into marking for her.  What wasn't helping was the strange argument between Selphie and Irvine that he was doing his best to ignore.

Well I'm going to try – someone needs to snap him out of it.  Seifer rolled his eyes and wondered who they were talking about.  Seifer...  He didn't let her get any further, he'd made that mistake too often in the past.

"Selph, go away.  I'm trying to...  Holy fuck!"  Seifer literally vaulted the desk – an impressive enough feat from a standing start, never mind a sitting one – and shot across the room, stopping with his back to the wall and Hyperion drawn. 

There was no one there.

Trembling slightly, he sheathed Hyperion and pressed the back of his hand to his forehead.  Apart from the light fear-sweat there was nothing to indicate that he was running a fever, or coming down with another sort of sickness.

"Hyne, I'm going mad."  He muttered to himself.  Maybe becoming Squall's knight had merely slowed the descent into insanity.  But he knew that wasn't true.  With Squall's help he'd managed to rebuild more of his mind than he'd thought possible, although they both knew he would never truly be whole again.  "Irvine and Selphie are both dead."

Yes, yes we are.

"They both say...so..."

Seifer, if you faint, I will lose any and all respect I previously had for you.  Irvine's cool drawl cut through the fog surrounding Seifer's thoughts.

"I'm either going mad, or I'm dreaming."  He pinched himself on the arm.  "Ow.  Nope, not dreaming.  Great, I've gone insane."

Seifer, you were Ultemecia's knight, you know what fringe benefits that gave you.  The same's happening now.  Irvine's comment stopped him cold.  Sure he knew about the fringe 'benefits' – but how did the cowboy?  I'm dead.  You get a unique perspective from here.  Such as knowing what you're thinking.  Seifer glared at the office door, despite the fact that he didn't know if the cowboy was even there.

"So, you're telling me that a fringe 'benefit' of being Squall's knight, is being able to hear the dead.  You'll forgive me if I don't think that's much of a benefit – I mean, there have to be more dead people than living ones."

Irvy, there's no point rolling your eyes, he can't see you.  Yet.

"Yet?!  What do you mean, 'yet'?!"  Seifer lost it enough to nearly shriek, his eyes widening.  "Bad enough if I have to listen to the dead, I don't want to see them."  He suddenly remembered who he was talking to.  "Uh, no offence to either of you or anything.  S'just I ain't exactly got the cleanest record."  There was a heavy sigh, strong enough to push at a few of the loose papers on the top of his desk.

Listen Seifer.  Irvine said, speaking with the exaggerated patience of those explaining things to idiots.  When you're dead you understand everything.  No one blames you for what you've done in the past, and no one blames Squall.  We understand why he did what he did, and more than that, we know that he really did have no other choice.  Right now though, something's wrong.  I don't know why you can't feel it, unless he closes himself off to you frequently...

Well, Selphie commented, watching papers scatter madly in Seifer's wake, I think the answer to that was no.

"Squall?  Squall?!  What is it?  Squall!"  Seifer's words sounded thick and distorted, as though they were coming from the far end of a long tunnel full of cotton-wool.  A fact that, strangely enough, didn't seem relevant compared to the words on the screen.  Black and white, Squall thought dazedly.  Black and white didn't lie.  Couldn't lie.  Which meant that what he was reading was the horrible truth.  A horrible, stark, black-on-white truth.

"The Blue Widows..."  His voice sounded strange to his own ears.

"Squall!"  There were hands on either side of his face, forcefully turning him away from the screen.  Green eyes - worried green eyes.  "Squall?"  Seifer frowned at the unresponsive brunette.  Whatever had shocked him this much could be dealt with later.  The most important thing was to un-shock the stunned sorcerer.  "Ah shit..."  Seifer muttered, then slapped Squall hard enough to jerk the brunette's head around.

Pain...  Squall focussed on the pain.  Slowly reality returned.  Seifer was staring at him in concern, whilst clutching one hand tightly under his other arm.  Ah, that explained the pain.  The blond had just slapped him.  He could feel the sting in his cheek now, could feel the heat from the red mark that his knight's palm had created.

"Sorry."  Squall muttered, reaching out with a fragment of his power and soothing the hurt away from them both.

"Damn right you should be sorry."  Seifer grumbled, making only a half-hearted attempt to hide his relief.  "If you're going to force me to hit you like that, you shouldn't have such a bloody hard head."  Squall blinked, then chuckled slightly.  Trust Seifer to have such a unique perspective.  Anyone else would've been cursing him for going near catatonic in the first place.  "Now, just what was it that caused...that?"  The blond continued, peering at the open message.

"At least one of the Blue Widows has been sighted in Esthar, heading towards the city."  Seifer was silent.  There wasn't a swearword in existence that was strong enough for the situation.  How many people lived in Esthar?  Half a million?  A million?  Probably more.  And not one of them stood a chance...

His knight's silence spoke volumes to Squall.  There wasn't much that could rob the blond of words, but something like this...this would rob anyone of words.  With a horrible flash of insight, Squall opened the second urgent message.  The one from Galbadia.  Its contents confirmed his fears, and even Seifer sucked in a shocked breath of air.

"Galbadia too..."  Squall simply nodded.  There was nothing they could do.  So far they had no way of even slowing the X-ATV61UEs, never mind destroying them.  Their last attempt had been successful in the short-term, but disastrous in the long-term, resulting in there being two of the things rather than one.  All they could hope was that the inevitable deaths were quick.

Squall's mind was racing as he tried to find any sort of logic, no matter how twisted, behind Kylari's attacks.  If she hadn't known he was the sorcerer before the attack on Trabia, she did now, so why not send the two Blue Widows after him in Balamb?  Unless she was attempting to turn Esthar and Galbadia against each other.  That made sense.  In the chaos of another war between the two nations, or the tangled diplomacy of a cold war between the two, she would be much harder to hunt down.  Not that she was easy to trace under what passed for normal circumstances.  But relations between Galbadia and Esthar were more open now.  Their respective leaders were both men who had – if not directly in Caraway's case – saved their countries from sorceresses.  So...

"She's after Laguna and Caraway."  It was only when Seifer looked sharply at him that Squall realised he'd spoken his conclusion out loud.

"Why?  If she's after you, it doesn't benefit her in any way."

"She gets chaos to cover her tracks.  Plus it's possible that if she can goad Galbadia and Esthar into all-out war, they may become so engrossed in it that they never notice the real enemy until it's too late."

"The way Ultemecia sent Galbadia against Dollet and Timber so they didn't realise she was the real danger."  Seifer agreed, nodding.  "So we need to get to Laguna and Caraway before the Blue Widows do."  Squall grinned.

"We don't have to worry about those two – but we have to make it look as though we do.  I don't want to antagonise her too much by rubbing her failure in her face."  Seifer was staring at him blankly.  "Laguna and Caraway are holding talks on the possibilities of trade between Esthar and Galbadia.  But it had to be held somewhere neutral, so they're both in Galbadia Garden.  If either of the X-ATV61UEs is sighted in the vicinity, Martine's under instructions to get the Garden airborne and get out to sea."

"So why not piss her off?  An angry opponent is one step away from a fatal mistake."  The blond quoted the words so familiar from their early cadet years.

"Considering her power, and the two Blue Widows, who would the mistake be fatal for?"  There was no reply to the question.  It was rhetorical, as there was no way to answer it with certainty, just the uncertain, 'maybe her, but more likely us'.

"So, what do we do?  Nothing?"  Squall shrugged.

"There's nothing we can do to prevent the attacks, but if Laguna and Caraway act quickly, we might be able to save some lives.  Either way, we'll want a strong SeeD presence during the clean-up operation.  We have to minimise the damage that can be done by playing on our seeming lack of involvement."  Seifer nodded a weary agreement.  Basically it meant a day – at least – in conference with the leaders of the two nations, coordinating large-scale rescue operations in two continents.

"Right.  Well I'll get everything set up in the 'disaster room', then you can cope with the crises of the world, whilst I cope with those of Garden."  He dropped a quick kiss on the brunette's forehead, then straightened and walked to the office door.  "Oh, and Squall."  The blond turned to look at him over his shoulder.  "Never close yourself off to me again.  Or have I learned to trust a lie?" 

He didn't wait for an answer, or a reaction, so he didn't see the guilty expression that flashed behind Squall's eyes.

Seifer's estimate of a day turned out to be quite accurate.  Between the time it took for them to battle through the exact details of what was going on, their theories as to the new sorceress's plans and goals, and the reason Squall was recommending evacuation over fighting, several hours had gone by before they even began to put emergency plans into action.  As it was, when the wheels had been set turning, there was little the absent leaders could do except hope and pray for their people. 

Leaving people he trusted in charge of the disaster room, Squall left with Seifer to grab what little sleep they might be able to find.  It was going to be a brutal day tomorrow.

AN: tired...damned demanding muses...need sleeeeeeeeep...yawns


	6. Death of a City

AN: Argh!  I had one chapter expand like crazy, and then it decided it wanted to be about four chapters.  Then I go and notice several continuity errors, manage to bring Selphie and Irvine back for a cameo (not likely to be the last either), reshuffle the timeline of events, give Rinoa a brain (sorry – can't decide whether I like her or not atm o.O), and...and...ARGH! falls over  I need coffee... crawls away

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Six Death of a City 

The destruction and chaos that the giant spider had brought to the city of Esthar was almost beyond comprehension.  Even the lunar cry had not managed to bring the city to its knees, life, of a kind, had continued.  But this was terrible.  The spider appeared to have worked its way systematically around the city, first destroying the communications building, then destroying the roads before moving on to the presidential palace.

Civilian buildings had been destroyed almost as an afterthought, as though the machine, failing to find that which it hunted, had taken out its anger on the city.  Soldiers were milling around anxiously, shaken by their inability to combat the attacker, shocked by the ferocity and determination of its attack.  A few were numbly aiding the rescue crews, who were digging through the smoking ruins, hoping against hope to find survivors. 

Squall knew it was a hopeless task.  Those who had not heeded the warnings, who had disobeyed their absent president's orders to flee the city, were dead.  Those who had fled, well, they had whatever they had carried with them.  The clothes they wore, maybe a few of their more cherished possessions.  Not much.  Fortunately Esthar had expanded in the years since Ultemecia.  Still within its protective boundary, but spread out so that there were homes and buildings where the shaken refugees could shelter.

More than half a million souls destroyed in one act of violence.  Were they stains on his conscience as well as the sorceress's?  He strongly doubted that Kylari had a conscience. 

He could feel Seifer standing close behind him, the older man as shocked as he had ever known him.  Not even under Ultemecia had such loss of life been caused in so little time with such cold ruthlessness.

"Hyne wept."  Seifer muttered softly, surveying the damage.  "What about Deling City?  Surely there's something that we can do there, if not here?"  He asked quietly.  Squall sighed.

"Maybe.  But I doubt it."

The sight and smell that assaulted his senses made Seifer spin and vomit noisily onto the broken tarmac of the road.  He wasn't the first.  The rescue teams that had been here, all veterans used to the horror and devastation of both man-made and natural disasters, had found themselves unequal to the task.  There could be no one alive in the mess that had once been Galbadia's proud capital city.  Silently agreeing, Squall had sent them home when he and Seifer had arrived.  The refugees – for thankfully many had heeded the warnings and fled in time – hadn't lingered in the vicinity.  No one could blame them. 

Still, now, looking at the dead city, Squall forced himself to face the truth, the consequences of his actions.  Why didn't he just go up against Kylari and get it over with?  Surely what she would do couldn't be any worse than what she had? 

But despite the fear, despite the terror of knowing he would be going to his defeat and the horror of knowing what she would do to him, there was a genuine reason for not going to his death. 

If he fought, and lost, as he would, then Kylari would be able to force his powers into herself, to combine both strains of sorcerous power into one ultimate power.  And with that power, she would destroy the world.  It didn't matter if she meant to destroy the world or not, there was simply too much power for any one person to contain. 

But maybe that was her aim?  It was anything but clear as to what Kylari's ultimate goal was.  Maybe she didn't realise that to contain all the sorcerous power in the world was to sentence yourself to death?  Maybe she would stop if she learned the truth.  Squall could have laughed at the idea, if not for the devastation he was staring at.  Deling City was no more.  It was a mass of bloody, smoking ruins.  Anyone capable of this was too insane, too inhuman to care about the consequences of their actions.

The stench of death rolled off the streets in waves, mingling with the sickeningly sweet smell of charred and burnt flesh.  There was an acrid bite to the lingering smoke, where bone had burnt with wood and melting plastic.  In places there was a gleam where the fire had been white-hot and glass windows had melted and run, the glass then cooling, shot with streaks of molten metal.

There was nothing alive here. 

Nothing to be saved. 

Nothing to be salvaged.

Squall guessed that Kylari had been here herself.  That when the first machine had failed to find Laguna in Esthar, and she herself had been unable to find either him or Caraway in Deling City, her rage had taken over.  And consumed an entire city.  The worst of it was, Squall suspected the sorceress had enjoyed it.  Had enjoyed hearing the screams and moans, and pleas that she had no intention of answering. 

"Why?"  Seifer, having recovered himself, voiced the question thick on the air.  Squall couldn't answer him, couldn't answer the accusing glares of the dead within the city.  There was only one thing he could do for this city.  Bury it.  The earth rumbled in answer, and slowly, painfully, the city subsided into the ground, fresh earth falling into the hole and filling it.

"So it begins..."  Squall whispered, silent tears streaming down his face as the once-grand city vanished forever beneath the clay.

AN: The long night has come...  well, it's coming anyway :) laughs manically a measure of how knackered I am – I managed to duplicate this chapter without noticing, blame all the stuff I was blaming at the top grins wryly

REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1

Reviewer: Lady Yuskreven

Date: 07/01/2003

For Chapter: 5

Review:  god... So many deaths... Poor people.. I hope that Seifer and Squall will beat the shit out of Kylari!!! Yeah!!!!

Author's Response:  sly grin I'd comment, but I'd give things away ;)  Thanks for the review!

Reviewer: himiko

Date: 12/01/2003

For Chapter: 5

Review:  gee... i get the 9th review on both the prequel and sequel.. coincidence?

         bloooooood... mwahahahahahacough sorry, my bloodlust temporarily resurfaced.

as long as either of the two bishounen gets irreparably damaged, i forgive you. or they could die together, and the villan sorceress implode from the surge of power, and take down the universe with her mad crackle

or they could hide into time compression, but time won't exist if the universe doesn't, but in the past it does, but time is circular so the past is the future, so is the past gone or the future re-established? eyes cross me think me leave before me more confused but me can't be more confused than am already so yeah...

Author's Response:  eyes cross in sympathy  don't worry, I've been giving myself quantum headaches trying to figure all the time stuff out myself   The good news is (most of the time) I know how it's going to work.  The bad news is that I can't explain it until the end/near the end, because it is packed full of spoilers :(  I'm glad people are thinking about it though :)  Thanks for reviewing!

Reviewer: Redrum

Date: 29/01/2003

For Chapter: 6

Review:  Excellent so far! Can't wait for the next chapter.

Author's Response:  High praise from an author whose work encouraged me to put my own online bows I'm honoured.  Thank you for taking the time to read and review :)


	7. Of Past and Present Changing Faces

AN: Don't b surprised if these chapters suddenly start getting long – I've decided not to let my muses push me around any more peers out from behind sofa now if I can just make it to the computer without being ambushed...

**Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Seven Of Past and Present Changing Faces**

"Adel is gone."  Rinoa watched Edea carefully as she made the statement, noting the lack of reaction on the other sorceress's part.

"Indeed.  But I don't think that was what brought you here."  Edea replied placidly, taking a genteel sip of tea.  Rinoa had yet to drink.  Had yet, in fact, to even touch the cup beyond accepting it and placing it on the table before her.  "It's not poisoned or drugged, I assure you."  A slight widening of the girl's eyes was the only reaction.  Edea continued her visual study.  She didn't know Rinoa well - her only contact with her prior to the Adel incident being when Ultemecia had carelessly thrown her to the Iguions - and had no way to know how much of the sorceress facing her was Rinoa, and how much Adel.  One thing was for certain though, if she had gained some skill from Adel's temporary possession, she was still no Adel when it came to manipulating people.

"I came to, persuade you to change your views on the current situation."  No.  Nowhere near Adel's league.  "I...I have new information..."  Rinoa stammered slightly at Edea's raised eyebrow.  She was still getting used to finding her own way through the murky world of intrigue that Adel had immersed her in.  It had come naturally to the Estharian sorceress – who had, admittedly, had a lot of previous practise – but she was still learning, mainly by trial and error.  More error than anything else if she was honest.  But that was the main point of this game, not being honest.  Not showing your true intentions or anything else that could be used against you.  The problem was, she was now trying to succeed where even Adel had failed – probably not the best idea in the world.

"Really."  The eyebrow lowered, and a pointed glance was shot at the untouched tea.  "Perhaps I would be more inclined to believe your good intentions if you showed a little trust in mine."  With a slight sigh Rinoa picked up the cup and drank, half wishing that doing so would enable her to rewind time and start the whole meeting again.  Edea watched impassively, her own mind slipping back into the memories of a similar conversation two years previously.

FLASHBACK START

"Your tea-making ability has improved over the years Edea."  Adel commented, sipping from the cup with a mildly surprised, mildly pleased expression.  Edea laughed quietly.

"So, what's the bitter pill you wish me to swallow with that flattery Adel?  Or do I still call you Rinoa?"  Adel waved her free hand vaguely in the air.

"Adel will do fine – as long as you don't blow my cover in public.  As for the pill – it's really not that bitter."  She placed the cup carefully on the table, clasping her hands in her lap and wearing an expression that Edea knew all too well.  Adel was going to try her hardest to persuade her to do something she knew the other sorceress wouldn't want to, and she was going to try and convince her that it was her own idea to boot.

"I doubt we'll be seen in public together for me to make that mistake."  Edea commented quietly.  The warning was clear.  If Adel wanted her to join forces with her in the public eye, she could think again.  Adel, however, took the warning quite calmly, inclining her head in silent acceptance.

"I spoke with the young Leonhart.  And before you ask," Adel held up a hand to quiet Edea's outburst before it came.  "He is quite well, and quite thoroughly disentangled from any and all the schemes I'd hoped to entangle him in."  She sounded quite disgruntled by the fact.  Edea wasn't surprised – it wasn't often a mortal managed to completely flummox Adel.  But then, this was Squall, and Adel had been out of practice for a long time. The dark haired sorceress sniffed her displeasure before continuing.  "He, rather inconveniently, noticed that I am not Rinoa."

"So you tried to...convince...him that your plans were a good idea?"  Edea didn't need an answer to her question.  Adel's presence in her home, speaking to her about it, were answer enough.  The other sorceress nodded, a rueful expression on her face.

"He seems certain that to act now is to hasten the end – or at least is a bad idea."  Edea waited, but Adel seemed unwilling to say anything more before Edea committed herself one way or another.

"What action did you suggest?"  She finally asked.

"That he aid Ellone in gathering the power of the remaining sorceresses into herself before Kylari can take it for her own."  Edea raised an eyebrow.  Such a blunt do-or-die strategy, it was not hard to see why Squall had rejected it out of hand.  "He also ventured an opinion of Ultemecia that intrigued me."  The other eyebrow joined the first.  "He suggested that perhaps it was Kylari who was somehow controlling Ultemecia."  The eyebrows dropped as Edea's forehead creased into a delicate frown.

"That might explain..."

"Exactly."  Adel nodded sharply.  "And if that is what happened, we must proceed very cautiously indeed."  Edea put her cup down on the table, her free hand rising to play with a loose strand of hair.

"It would explain much – if Ultemecia's attempt at Time Compression were involved who knows when she might have escaped to."  Adel nodded again.

"And having transferred her consciousness via the powers once..."

"...She would automatically do so again upon the death of the wielder she was possessing, possessing the new inheritor."  Edea finished, eyes widening in concern.  "I fear our actions may have yielded graver consequences than those we sought to avoid through them..."

For only the third time in their lives, the two sorceresses found themselves in complete agreement.

FLASHBACK END

"I'm sorry, I didn't come here to threaten you or anything.  I just..."  Rinoa suddenly paused.  "Did you hear something?"  Edea shook her head in honest denial.  "Oh."  Rinoa seemed almost crestfallen at her response.

"Child, there is no use attempting to sway my decision.  I will not act until I have reached my own conclusions, and that..."  A harsh chuckle interrupted Edea's words.

"Well, well, well.  How lovely to see you both again."  There was a sorceress standing in the doorway.  A tremor passed down Edea's spine, some sixth sense warning her that this sorceress was no friend.

"Kylari?!"  Rinoa looked terrified, standing so quickly that she knocked the table, rocking it hard enough to tip the cups and send tea splashing across its surface.  But even as she instinctively reacted in fear, she looked confused by her own actions, as if she knew she had done something wrong, but not what.

"I told you to watch the boy."  Kylari said, her calm voice and neutral words made all the more fearsome by her chilling glare.  Edea could only stare, shock still numbing her mind to the reality of the situation.  Something was niggling at the back of her thoughts, but every time she tried to grasp it, it slipped away.

Rinoa was standing, half cringing, uncertain and afraid, but still with enough backbone to prevent her simply breaking down on the spot.  "What happened?"  Rinoa's expression didn't change, except for the fear/confusion deepening.  The sorceress growled deep in her throat, then snorted and tossed her head in disgust.  Rinoa seemed paralysed, but the emotions flickering in her eyes showed that even if she was physically frozen, her thoughts were racing. 

Kylari's attention shifted to Edea.  Strangely she didn't feel afraid.  She didn't know the sorceress facing her – it wasn't Amara anyway – but she knew the force driving her.  Unfortunately, even knowing only the most basic details of how time sorcery worked, Edea knew that the chances of 'Kylari' being sane were so slim as to be non-existent. 

"Hello again, Askylarian."  A chair floated across the room, and Kylari dropped gracefully to sit in it.  She smiled, and Edea was suddenly more afraid than she had been during the entire Ultemecia episode.  Kylari's smile deepened.

"Hello Edea.  I'm afraid I couldn't bring a militia with me, not yet, but I suppose there's still time."  She laughed at her own twisted joke.  "Ah," she sighed, stretching languorously in the chair.  "You don't know what a comfort it is to see a familiar face."  Kylari smiled her predatory smile again.  "Aren't you going to ask me why I'm here?  What I want?"

"I don't think there's much point.  I don't think you have the sanity to know yourself."  Edea retorted, frowning at the other sorceress.  Kylari affected a hurt look and tutted.

"I want what you have up here..."  She leaned forward and tapped Edea's temple.  The older woman felt blood well to the surface where Kylari's sharp talons hand broken the skin – even with such a delicate touch.  "You see, I think you know the location of someone I'm very interested in meeting."

"Edea?"  Cid suddenly appeared in the doorway, summoned by the rising unease he could feel in his sorceress.  Kylari smirked, and gestured without looking around.  A weed, which had been growing, perfectly harmlessly, up the wall, suddenly writhed and twisted.  Its tendrils shot out to wind firmly around Cid's arms and legs, pulling him back to the wall, where more tendrils secured him in place.

"Well."  Kylari hadn't looked away from Edea.  "Perhaps now you'll be more, co-operative.  Or maybe you won't, and I can have my fun."  Edea sighed, noticing Rinoa's expression clearing on the periphery of her vision.  Clearly Kylari's threats were making up the other sorceress's mind.

"What do you want to know?"  Kylari smiled victoriously.  "Only, release my knight first.  He can sit here, with me, if you still require surety."  Kylari considered for a moment, frowning as she tried to see the trick she suspected, then nodded.  The weed released Cid, who walked, somewhat unsteadily, over to Edea.  He knelt, and she took his head between her hands, whispering into his ear.  "Forgive me my love, for everything."  He smiled.

"Always."  Kylari watched, motionless except for a single raised eyebrow, as with a savage twist of her arms, Edea broke Cid's neck, killing him instantly.

"I'd never have thought you would do it."  Kylari said, almost admiringly.  "Sacrifice your own knight just so that I couldn't have my fun."  She pouted at that, expression declaring Edea a spoilsport.  "Still, I get to watch you scurrying around to find a successor before you go insane."  She shrugged.  "Almost as good."

"Whatever you gain, it will not be the knowledge you seek."  Edea snapped back, sorrow turning to anger as Kylari laughed.

"You know, you never even asked who I was looking for.  No matter."  Kylari waved a hand airily, dismissing the matter.  "Scurry away o doomed one."

Edea bristled indignantly as Kylari turned to Rinoa.  It made her feel insignificant, and also somehow scared of the deep foreboding that she had just played into the other sorceress's hand.

"Come Rinoa.  We have no business with this creature, except to aid SeeD against her."  The raven sorceress nodded sharply in agreement and took a determined step towards Edea and the door, only to be halted by Kylari's knowing smirk.

"Oh, but Edea, you can't be taking my protégé away before we've had a chance to talk."  The sorceress protested.  Rinoa's expression was a sickly mix of uneasy fear, and a slight tinge of pleased surprise.  Edea frowned.  Something was happening on deeper levels than the immediately obvious.  Clearly Kylari had already begun to work on Rinoa, but there was no telling how advanced her manipulations were.  Probably not far given that Rinoa still appeared to have some free will left.  Although, she had been possessed by Ultemecia and Adel, and that might have left her vulnerable to other mental attacks.  Kylari chuckled lowly, as if reading her thoughts.  "I will do nothing more than talk.  I promise you that Edea."  Edea frowned, but as Kylari tilted her head to one side in sudden, and fake, wonderment, she realised the hesitation had cost her.  "Or do you think so little of her ability to defend herself – the sorceress who defeated Ultemecia?"

They both knew that Rinoa had not, strictly speaking, defeated Ultemecia.  But it was clear from the expression on Rinoa's face that the only way to remove her from Kylari's presence would be forcibly – an action that Kylari could prevent by 'aiding' Rinoa.  Staying would change nothing, and only alienate Rinoa in the process.  She had lost.  Edea glared at Kylari, then swept away without another word.

"So..."  Rinoa's mouth snapped shut on whatever question she had been about to ask.  There was pressure on her mind, a too-familiar pressure that she knew meant another sorceress trying to possess her.  It was taking her entire focus to repel it, as open to possession as she had been left by Ultemecia and Adel.

"A war is coming."  Kylari's honeyed voice slipped over her concentration, trying to draw her attention away from the vital task of defending her mind.  "Timber will not be able to stand alone."  For a second her attention wavered, but snapped back as the invading touch strengthened.  "It will need a friend.  Someone with the power to protect its freedom.  Galbadia will seek to unify itself by annexing Timber once more."  The thought that Timber's hard won independence would be lost once more was too much.  Rinoa's concentration broke with an almost audible finality.  The force of the mental blow threw her off-balance, making her stagger and fall over the table.

Cups, table and Rinoa landed in a heap on the floor, the porcelain smashing and tea flooding out to stain the carpet along with blood.  Silence reigned for several minutes, Kylari staring intently at Rinoa's prone form, not even blinking.  Abruptly Rinoa shifted, returning to consciousness, and Kylari smiled in satisfaction 

Groaning, Rinoa managed to push herself onto her hands and knees.  Her limbs were trembling, the room was swimming before her eyes, and her thoughts were clouded and incoherent.  There was blood trickling from various cuts and scratches inflicted by the wrecked table and cups, but she seemed not to notice them.  After a moment she scrambled awkwardly upright, like a child learning how to walk, and stood there swaying like a tree in a gentle breeze.  Her head felt like it was going to explode, as though her mind was suddenly accommodating more than just herself.

"Come here Child of Mine."  Rinoa staggered forwards, eyes blank and staring - the sudden, and unexpected, battle for mental domination lost.  "Good."  Kylari purred.  "Now listen very carefully..."

AN: The plot thickens... :)  Don't think Edea got away tho, she's just played right into Kylari's hand sighs I think evry1's gonna hate me by the end of this fic...

Please rxr, but feel free to flame :p

REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1

Reviewer: Lady Yuskreven

Date: 01/12/2002

For Chapter: 4

Review:  yeah! another chapter!!!

         Another good one, too. I loved the cid's death part. (i know i'm crazy)

         More!!!

Author's Response:  laughs thanks, glad you liked it.  Thanks for reviewing!


	8. Mind Games

AN: so far so good... or maybe not knowing look

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Eight Mind Games 

They got the call on the flight back to Balamb Garden.  Nida, quieter than ever in the face of Squall's sombreness, informed them in a near whisper that Rinoa was waiting for Squall in his office.  As soon as the call ended Seifer shot the brunette an 'I told you so', glare.  Squall shrugged.  He never bothered locking his office when out because it was on the third floor of the Garden.  Anyone up there had a high enough security clearance that there was nothing they couldn't see in his office.  Of course, the only exception to that rule was the one sorceress that neither of them had ever expected to actually turn up...

"What are you doing here Rinoa?"  Squall demanded as he strode into his office.  The raven haired sorceress jumped at the sudden noise, and quickly tried to pretend that she hadn't been staring at the assignment papers strewn across the desk, much less that she'd been rummaging through them.  "Or are you still Adel?"  He continued, driving her away from his place behind the desk through his sheer physical presence.  Seifer, watching in awe from the doorway, was suddenly glad he'd never truly incurred the brunette's wrath.  "No..."  Squall decided out loud, watching as Rinoa felt the balance of power shift in the room.  "Adel wouldn't stoop this low.  This," he indicated the scattered papers by stripping off his gloves and letting them fall on top of the loose sheets, "is positively infantile."

"You..."  Rinoa seemed to be struggling for words.  Squall frowned, and let his mind brush gently across hers.

You killed cock Robin!  He pulled away sharply, feeling the taint of rage and madness.  That wasn't Rinoa.

"...wouldn't have minded before!"  The sorceress finished in a rush.

"News for you Heartilly."  Seifer drawled from the doorway.  "Yes he would.  He just wouldn't have said anything."

"And you..."  Rinoa turned, growling accusingly at him.  "You're..."  Again the hesitation.  This time Squall was even more cautious with his mental touch.

You are the sparrow.  But no bow and arrow.  No bow and arrow...  The foreign mental voice subsided into mutters, fading into the background as Rinoa found the words she wanted.

"You're so pathetic I wouldn't have you as my knight if you begged."  Squall was tempted to point out that Seifer was already taken, but Rinoa's behaviour was too strange, too unlike her.  There was no way he was going to risk the chance that she might have a complete mental breakdown in his office.  Unfortunately, whilst Seifer was prepared to endure Squall's snide comments – mainly because he could tell the brunette never really meant them – Rinoa's he was not.

"Well the same goes.  Only you won't get the chance, 'cause Squall beat ya to it, and I said yes."  The silence following his statement was deafening.  Rinoa gaped soundlessly, wide eyes darting between Squall and Seifer in confusion and disbelief.  Immediately he stiffened, realising how close he had come to outright announcing Squall a sorcerer.

And now dig your way out of that hole, using words of one syllable or less.  Squall growled into his knight's mind, only half-sarcastic.  Seifer swallowed, then threw the still-gaping Rinoa a cocky smirk.

"Besides, as a personal aide I get to quit if I disagree, and I get paid."  The gaping mouth snapped shut, and Rinoa sneered...

Because it didn't matter.  The moment of shock and horror where, until Seifer's clarification, it had seemed that of the two men in the room with her, one was a sorcerer, and the other his knight – although she hadn't been sure which way round it was – had been too much for Rinoa's stressed mind.  In that moment they had shattered any and all hope she had ever had that Squall would one day realise he loved her.  It didn't matter that a still-rational part of her mind had screamed that she was being controlled by someone else's mind.  It didn't matter that the same part had screamed for her to accept the facts and move on with her life, without bitterness or anger.  And it didn't matter that, in her subconscious, she had both heard and agreed with those conclusions, because she had retreated mentally in her shock, and the weakness that possessions by both Ultemecia and Adel had made her legacy, had proven her undoing...

Before Squall or Seifer knew what was happening, the Rinoa they had both known, and at one time, cared for, was gone forever.  In her place remained a strange, irrational creature, a mental mixture that was mostly filled with venomous, childish rage and desire for vengeance, mixed with just enough of Rinoa to pass for the sorceress on superficial examination. 

"Just a wannabe now Seifer?"  It was the voice that gave her away.  Rinoa's pleasant alto had changed pitch and gained an edge that threatened hysterical laughter.  Even as the two men shared a horrified look, they cast protect and shell on themselves.  Rinoa/not-Rinoa giggled at them.

"I'll see you die cock Robin!"  She chortled at Squall.  "With my little eye.  Kylari and I will see you die!"  Then she vanished.

"She's gone."  Squall's relieved words were still full of tension.  Rinoa was gone in more than one sense of the word.

Kylari moaned and opened her eyes, blinking to dispel the double-vision that possessing another sorceress, even passively, left her with.  Rinoa was huddled in the corner furthest away from her, rocking and muttering to herself.  The host spirit was broken.  All of Rinoa was hers, heart, soul and mind permanently enslaved.  All she had to do was give this new weapon a purpose.

"Poor child."  She cooed at the shaking form in the corner.  "Alone for so long."  Kylari smiled sweetly as the creature – no longer possessing enough humanity to be called human - started paying attention.  The mind was like metal, a good smith could take it in any form, work it with expert skill, and create the finest blade known to man.  She had broken the original, added another metal to the mix, and now Kylari was going to create a living, breathing blade.  A weapon that would have the subtlety and intelligence that her two Blue Widows lacked.

"Poor little sorceress.  Used and discarded by SeeD..."  She spoke quietly, appealing to the mind she had added, but also to the remnants of the host mind.  The shaking had stopped, concentration being diverted into considering Kylari's words.  It made sense, even to the broken and tangled mess that was Rinoa's shattered mind.  She was a poor child, no one understood her, how she felt, and how it had felt watching Squall drift further away, helpless to stop him slipping from her grasp.  She hadn't understood why, or more importantly who and how, he'd been taken from her.  Had it all simply been an act?  No... She was been certain that he loved her... 

Kylari listened carefully to the raven-haired sorceress's mind.  She was doing with words what a smith did with his hammer, and listening for the tell-tale changes in tone that signalled what stage of creation the blade was at.

"And then they insult your intelligence by refusing to give you even honorary SeeD ranking."  That had hurt.  That had really hurt.  After all the fighting she'd gone through with Squall and the others, and then to receive a curt thank you from Cid, and not even that from Squall.  They had, she was forced – grudgingly - to admit, freed Timber from Galbadian rule.  But, she suspected, that was only because Squall, Zell and Selphie were under contract to her until it had gained its independence. 

The resentment in Rinoa's mind finally rang true.  Whatever rational core had remained, it had been swayed by Kylari's words.  Now to add the seed of doubt...

"They didn't even have the grace to tell you what you'd been fighting for.  What SeeD's true purpose is."  Rinoa frowned.  That was what Squall had said Seifer had been torturing him to know.  But, Squall and the others had all claimed not to know.  Had that only been because she was around?  An outsider?  A sorceress?

"But... Squall cares..."  She moaned plaintively, wilfully ignoring the fact that caring for someone didn't mean you trusted them.  Kylari arched a delicate eyebrow.  She hadn't expected any more resistance, but still, she could work with this.

"Does he really?  Are you so sure?"  Rinoa nodded, sniffling slightly, the resistance in her mind growing.

"He jumped into space for me..."  She trailed off as Kylari laughed, her certainty wavering.

"Poor, innocent child.  He used you.  They needed a pet sorceress, someone who would blindly follow orders, too infatuated to think straight."  She stared sympathetically at the glaring Rinoa.  "You were seduced by one of the best.  I've seen the reports."  Of course, there were no such reports, but Rinoa didn't know that.  She would believe it, because even if she hadn't been seduced by one of the best, she was currently being manipulated by one of the best. 

The resistance dissolved as suddenly as it had reappeared, the sorceress's mind snapping into the mould that Kylari had shaped.  Perfection.  Kylari smiled smugly to herself as Rinoa's physical appearance slowly warped and changed.  She became taller, thinner, but her features and body lost their definition, becoming the androgynous lines of a child.  Her eyes darkened almost to black, seeming darker thanks to the shadows of experience the shared consciousness now had.  The older sorceress beckoned her creation, her child closer.

"What do you think SeeD's true purpose is?"  Rinoa shrugged.  "Alright, then who do you think might know?"

"How should I know?"  Kylari's creature spoke for the first time.

"Well then, I'll tell you exactly who to start with..."

Kylari made no move to stop the sorceress as she left the orphanage.  Rinoa was bound tight to her side, her cause.  She would be a loyal and obedient puppet until there was no further use for her.  And then the raven haired sorceress would die, and she would take her powers into herself.

"You think Kylari's possessing her?"  Squall shrugged.  He wasn't entirely sure what he thought.  It was just too, too, illogical.  Something was seriously screwed with Kylari's mind.  Whether it was because the sorceress was insane, or whether she was making an effort to be unpredictable, he didn't know.

"I...I don't think so.  She's done something, or is doing something, but I don't know what."  He shook his head in bafflement.  "It felt as if Rinoa's somehow developed a split personality..."  Seifer snorted.

"She has enough trouble with one personality, how would she get a second?"  Squall shrugged again.

"I honestly don't know."

"Maybe Adel had something to do with it."

"Maybe."  Squall agreed with a sigh.  "It doesn't matter how it happened though.  It has happened, and Kylari's numbers have grown at our expense." 

"So what do we do now?"

"We need to let everyone know that Rinoa is on Kylari's side.  But..."

"You're still not sure."  Squall nodded.

"She might escape Kylari's clutches somehow.  I don't see how, on her own, but if someone else interfered..."  Seifer nodded.  If it did so happen that Rinoa genuinely managed to come to her senses, she needed a loophole back into SeeD's official good graces.  So what she really needed was to be blacklisted unofficially, and that meant a combination of the tried and tested Garden grapevine, and meetings that wouldn't officially take place.

"Shame Chickenwuss and his big mouth aren't here to help."  Seifer remarked.  "When are he and Quistis due back?"  Squall grinned.

"Mission should have concluded today, but I said they could take a couple of days coming back.  They didn't get much of a honeymoon after all."  Seifer snorted.

"Well look at it this way, how many other people can say their marriage was part of an infiltration mission?"

"Be that as it may, if you can get rumours started and then sort out transport for those heading for Galbadia Garden, I'll clear up the paperwork here, suffer through another conference report on the Blue Widows with Caraway and Laguna, and meet you in your office in three or four hours."  Seifer grimaced.  "What?"

"Just remembered that I still need to stick a lock on my office door..."  The blond left Squall's office still chuckling at Squall's expression...

AN: hooray for lack of exams!  Phew wipes away sweat I really don't like statistics :(  Anyway, finally, chpt 6 of DA...  I'm all happy cause my muses finally let me know a whole lot more about Kylari :)  Plus I have a much better concept of the ending now I know what her motivation is ;p still, about hmm consults muses 4/5 chpts of DA to go... hehehe

Well, scarily enough, 'hooray for lack of exams!' is relevant again ;;  Not statistics this time though – computing mathematics and principles of computing this time (IEEE Is Evil Evil Evil o.O) 


	9. Memories

AN: Yes, a new chapter spawned itself after six grew to near-epic proportions...  Thus, from chapter six (formerly titled 'Mind Games and Memories') sprang the current chapters six ('Mind Games') and seven (Memories) – haha, like you can't see the title just below hides  Of course, thanks to the subsequent reshuffle of chapters, six and seven are now eight and nine respectively blushes goddamn muses... Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Nine Memories 

"Loire will follow your lead whatever happens – he is your father, however much you deny it."  Squall's only response was a glare several degrees below freezing point.  "Carraway, Garden and the Shumi will back you up because they trust you."

"Trust doesn't matter.  The people will turn, especially with the sorceresses urging them to."  Seifer rubbed his forehead in irritation.  Squall had come down to his office an hour earlier, ostensibly to discuss how the situation updates with Caraway and Laguna had gone, and was still, three hours on, there.  Not that he was there with a purpose – or not one that Seifer could fathom – but rather doing something that Squall never did.  Dithering.

"OK, so political spin from the sorceresses.  Now, how much sway do you think they have any more?  Especially in Esthar and Galbadia."  Squall grunted in reply, turning to pace across the office again.  Seifer sighed.  He might not know what Squall was dithering over, but he knew the conversation they were having was probably nothing to do with it at all.  Classic Squallian misdirection.  A meaningless discussion whilst the old internal monologue thrashed through what he was really thinking about.

"Enough, if Kylari doesn't illuminate the heavens with the words 'I want to destroy the world'.  Too much if she says she's after me, 'for the good of the world'."  It was Seifer's turn to glare.

"Why are you so convinced that the sorceresses will all turn against you as soon as you reveal you're a sorcerer?"  Squall jerked in surprise, turning to look at Seifer so fast that he blurred.  Seifer blinked.  That comment had certainly touched a nerve...  "So that's what's got your knickers in a twist."

"I don't wear any – you know that."  Squall smirked weakly, not bothering to deny Seifer's observation.  Seifer folded his arms and leaned back in his chair.

"C'mon.  Spill."  Squall gestured vaguely in the air – the door lock snicking closed as he did so.

"It's...easier...to show you..."  The brunette stopped and looked straight at his knight, silently waiting for permission to take over his mind.  There was a long pause, Seifer battling his fear with the knowledge that this was Squall, the man he trusted – not Ultemecia.

"Alright."  He closed his eyes, shuddering once as he felt his consciousness replaced by Squall's, and then becoming still.

His name was Logan Thormahlen, and he was a sorcerer.  This was a relatively new thing – he hadn't been one three weeks ago – and he was still getting used to the increased reverence from everyone around him.  He'd left his home village soon after his powers manifested, embarrassed and a little scared by the way people would drop everything to carry out his slightest wish.  He'd left a note for his wife, explaining why he felt he had to leave, and expressing his hopes that the zeal of the people would cool soon, so that he could return.  Hyne alone knew how the village would react to it, but if his wife showed her usual sense, she would tell them that Hyne had given him a task in a dream.

He'd been on the road for a week, never staying in a village past the first day they discovered he was a sorcerer.  It would take time, he supposed, for the novelty to pass, but he wasn't the only one hoping the world would calm down soon.  Other sorcerers – and sorceresses – were also on the move, striving in vain to escape the worship that they'd never asked for.  It helped that the sorceresses knew where their powers had come from – Hyne – but only She knew who or what had granted powers to the sorcerers.  What all agreed on though, was that bringing all their collective powers into one vessel, one person, was to destroy the world completely.  And not just the living world, but the world of the dead.  The cycle of death and eventual rebirth would be shattered beyond salvation.

His name was Troy Masterson, and he was a sorcerer.  He was able to trace his family line right back to Aimen Thormahlen, and from there back to one of the first sorcerers – Logan Thormahlen.  He was also in hiding.

It had started long before his birth, or his father's birth, or his grandfather's birth.  The sorcerers had watched as the sorceresses passed on their powers, and their knowledge – but not their memories.  They had watched as the knowledge of the consequence of seeking ultimate power faded, and became only a caution against seeking more power than you were given.  Generations had watched with inherited memories over thousands of years as humanity and sorceresses alike forgot that they had been blessed with their powers for a reason, and that the abuse of those powers would only lead to disaster for all.  And eventually the first murders had happened, and suddenly the world had gone still as certain sorceresses – jealous of those with greater power – wondered 'what if...', turning their eyes towards the sorcerers.

War hadn't been declared at first.  It had just been the ever more frequent chills that told the sorcerers another of their number had died.  And then, when the sorceresses grew frustrated at their inability to take the sorcerer's power into themselves, they cast their nets wider, inventing vile rumours and poisoning the ears of all who would listen.  Slowly, so slowly, the world slid into confusion.  The people no longer stared at sorcerers and sorceresses with awe and wonder, but fear and mistrust.  No longer was it an honour to speak to one of Hyne's children, but a stigma that led to countless deaths.

Eventually the sorceresses had joined forces, corrupting the minds and hearts of those they could, and declared war on the sorcerers – and the few sorceresses who still held true to their teachings and were aiding the sorcerers.  The sorcerers had refused to fight, and had gone into hiding instead, hoping against hope that the darkness would pass.  It was harder than it sounded.  They had to remain constantly on the move to avoid the patrols in the villages, and with movement restricted, to do so was a dead giveaway.  The solution that a fortunate few had found was to recruit the aid of the Guardian Forces.  As yet undiscovered by the general population, the shy creatures had volunteered themselves as energy channels, binding themselves as conduits for the excess power that built up and caused the telltale golden eyes.  Unfortunately the process left both sorcerer and GF permanently changed.  The GFs were becoming more human, with human failings, and more powerful.  Likewise the sorcerers were becoming more otherworldly, and where they had never needed knights – unlike the sorceresses, who had always needed them – now they faced insanity and death without them.

Fortunately for him, and his father before him, Troy was in hiding on Bahlambrekiast Island.  One of two remote regions where sorcerers were still safe.  The Western Provinces were no more, forced together into a single country under the sorceress Galahabria.  Likewise the Eastern Nation had been taken control of by the sorceress Esthyre, and Kenthra ruled the Southern Isle.  But it wasn't likely to last forever...

Troy Masterson stared at himself in the mirror, noting critically how his blond hair was getting paler with each new white hair.  He often wondered what his wife and knight, Cera, saw in him, one of the 'hateful breed responsible for the monsters'.  The words of the propaganda still stung, never mind that they were decades old now.  They stung because they were the truth.  The sorcerers in the Southern Isle had attempted to shatter the power of Kenthra – and succeeded – but at the cost of their own lives, and the lives of the vast majority who had lived there.  The Isle itself had also shattered along with its sorceress, shattered under the impact of a stream of monsters from the moon.  Whilst their actions had quite possibly prevented a coalition attack against Bahlambrekiast and Tralahabrya, the survivors were now fanatics dedicated to hunting down and exterminating all sorcerers.  Rumour had it that they referred to themselves as 'The Kenthra', and considered themselves to be the scattered fragments of their beloved sorceress.

Whatever the truth about the survivors, now that the sorceresses knew the powers were passed along the male line of a family, they were hunting down families – and in some cases even those just rumoured to be related.  He was glad his children were both daughters.  Even if the worst happened how that Alicia had succeeded Joelyn as Bhalambrekiast's sorceress, his wife and children should be spared.

Fortunately they only had Galahabria to worry about.  The propaganda campaign had backfired on Esthyre, and in the face of rampant paranoia she had sealed her country to the outside world.  When they would resurface, if ever, was unknown.

Troy adjusted a few chains on his ceremonial robes and turned away from his reflection.  Joelyn had kept them safe whilst she had lived, and now it was the turn of he and his fellow sorcerers to see her soul safely to the afterworld, and guard it until its rebirth.

Seifer slowly opened his eyes as Squall's mind receded, taking the clarity of the memories with it.  One last image/feeling remained with him – Troy Masterson and six other sorcerers confronting a sorceress, barely deflecting her first attack, then encircling her, and sacrificing themselves to forcibly take her soul to the world of the dead with them.

"Then what happened?"  He asked quietly, knowing that the memory had to be several hundred years old at least.  Squall shrugged.

"Incoherency for the most part.  From what I can understand Troy was right when he thought Cera and his daughters would be left unharmed.  Which one I'm descended from – Yéla or Sola – I don't know.  Neither of them is the woman the next sorcerer called mother.  A similar skip occurs several generations later..."  He shrugged again.  Seifer was frowning.

"But, surely Troy wasn't the only sorcerer to leave behind daughters?"  Squall looked slightly irritated.

"The memories aren't clear."  He repeated, glaring at the blond.  "I only know that for whatever reason, I'm the last sorcerer, and that if my line ends..." 

The end of the world...

The merging of the world of the dead, and the world of the living...

The end of everything...

Sudden frantic knocking on the door broke the foreboding atmosphere with a snap and had both Squall and Seifer reaching for their weapons, ready for anything.  This was Seifer's office on the ground floor after all.  Anyone could get there.  Releasing the lock, Seifer opened the door a cautious fraction.  His stance relaxed, and he opened it fully to reveal a flushed cadet, hand raised to pound on the door again.  The girl's eyes slid past Seifer to rest on Squall.

"Sir!"  She hurriedly saluted.  "Galbadia Garden is on the emergency frequency in your office, sir!"  Squall nodded, and sheathed Lionheart.

"Dismissed."  The cadet saluted again and hurried away, fast enough that Seifer wondered if the cadets were so scared of their Commander that they risked expulsion by using Haste magic to aid their escapes.  Squall though, said nothing.  Either he hadn't detected any magic, or he had, and wasn't bothered by it.  Seifer thought it had to be the former.  The day Squall let someone break a rule was the day...  His thoughts scattered to the wind as he realised that said brunette was already well ahead of him, and not slowing.

Never had the elevator ride to the third floor seemed so slow.  Seifer's agitation steadily, and visibly, increased, but only he knew that Squall was getting just as agitated.  The blond pushed the third floor button for the fifth time, as if it would speed the elevator's progress.

"If you break that I'll kill you."

"Not if I kill me first..."  Seifer muttered.  "Hey!"  He suddenly realised.  "You could've just..."  He snapped his fingers, indicating that Squall could've just magicked them there.  Squall rolled his eyes, and quickly strode out of the elevator as it reached the third floor.  Seifer automatically went to follow, walking straight into the doors, which had yet to open.  "Bloody..."  The imprecations against Squall dropped to mutters as the doors swished open, after what seemed like an eternity, and the blond knight strode after his sorcerer.

Something about the atmosphere as he entered Squall's office prevented any complaints that Seifer might have made.  Squall was leaning over his desk, eyes closed, emotions a mixture of anger and resignation.  As Seifer walked closer the brunette's eyes opened, gold flecks visible in otherwise blue irises.

"Martine's been abducted..."

AN: whew wipes away sweat another chapter down and...consults muses four to go!


	10. The Mighty, Fallen

AN: hmm, I've just looked back at the ANs for the earlier chpts, and my muses quite helpfully pointed out the obvious – I haven't delivered on the darkness/gore... So, this is my attempt to get my muses paws/hooves/talons/hands/appendages bloody :)

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Ten The Mighty, Fallen 

Kylari paced up and down in front of Rinoa and her captive. She wasn't sure why she thought the Galbadian headmaster would know anything of any use, after all, hadn't he meekly caved in to Ultemecia? But... They had reinstated him, so, maybe he did know something of use. It was just a question of what. Unfortunately for Martine, his was one of the multitude of minds that Kylari couldn't just waltz into and take the information she wanted.

There was also the issue of what to do with Rinoa whilst she interrogated Martine. It wouldn't be pretty, and Kylari knew how squeamish the raven-haired sorceress had been, although she seemed pretty bloodthirsty in the way she was eyeing the helpless SeeD. Now was not the time to see if that squeamishness had been lost though. Later, when she had the resources and time to gradually work through her repertoire and see when the girl grossed out... So, what to do with her until then? Hmm, something to serve more than one purpose maybe? Yes...

"I want you to bring me Quistis Trepe and Zell Dincht." Kylari stopped pacing to address Rinoa. The weaker sorceress kept her eyes on the floor and nodded meekly, feeling a distinctly regretful sensation in her gut. But if Rinoa was clear on one thing, it was that, no matter how much she wanted to see Kylari torture Martine, her lot was to obey orders, not protest them.

"As you command, my Mother." Still not looking at either Kylari or Martine, Rinoa turned on her heel and stalked from the room.

Kylari watched Rinoa stalk away. That the golden eyes had never once left the floor did not bother her. Best that her creation understand exactly where her position was. One slip and Kylari would tear the girl's heart out and take her powers without a moments hesitation. Well, once her usefulness was done anyway.

Dismissing Rinoa from her mind, Kylari turned back to the kneeling form of Martine.

The sorceress gestured and another thin line of red appeared on an already blood-soaked chest. Martine was panting, his lungs cramped by the unnatural position he was chained in, and his skin, where it had yet to receive the sorceress's attention, was gleaming with sweat.

"Do you really expect me to believe that you know nothing?" Kylari asked, eyes narrowed as she stalked around Martine's helpless form. Martine didn't, couldn't, answer. He was struggling to get enough breath to form a decent scream, and the pain had fogged his mind beyond coherency. Not that it mattered. She wouldn't believe him whatever he said. Kylari was expecting him to lie to her, expecting a 'vain' show of SeeD defiance. That Martine might have been telling the truth when he had protested that he knew nothing, never even crossed her mind.

Frowning, Kylari waved her hand again. A deeper cut appeared, slicing across earlier wounds. Martine finally found the breath to scream. The effort left him panting hoarsely again, convulsing as an unseen fist slammed into his chest, causing him to retch and cough. Watching impassively, Kylari began to lay down more cuts on flesh she had, so far, avoided.

By the time she finished, Martine was, albeit barely, still alive. Still cruelly conscious. There wasn't a patch of skin left on his naked body, except for where the chains lay, and where his back lay over the large barrel-like object that he was chained to. Blood lay, congealing in places, like a second skin, oozing out of every broken capillary and vein in a futile attempt to clot and begin the healing process.

Kylari still didn't have the answers she wanted. Martine had protested his innocence, when she gave him the chance, at every stage. Even when she had finished placing her strategic cuts, and forced him to peel away his own skin, he had only been able to sob and scream that he didn't know anything.

The sorceress wasn't sure what to believe. That she had been, wrong, and he really did not know anything, or that she had underestimated the SeeDs and Martine was managing to hold out on her. But she was a sorceress, which gave her a distinct advantage. Any other torturer, at this stage, would have been forced to admit defeat. But not her. Oh no, never her.

With a twisted smile that Martine, unable to avoid with no eyelids, nearly passed out in fear from, Kylari began to chant. Martine felt the skin on his back stretching, crawling across the rest of him. Kylari stopped chanting, watching as the skin spread to slowly re-cover Martine's body. As long as he didn't actually die on her, Kylari could bring him backwards and forwards between perfect health and the brink of death with impunity.

But Kylari had no interest in prolonging Martine's torture. All she wanted to know was whether he really knew anything or nothing. And she was beginning to suspect that it was the latter. An error of judgement on Rinoa's part. But one, although she would never admit it, that Kylari thought she too might have made. After all, why would Garden reward a coward who had surrendered to the enemy once before?

Kylari clapped her hands and, as the fixed ends of the chains binding Martine floated free, gestured. Helpless to resist the forces acting on his body, Martine, glowering, was dragged to the cage and thrown inside. The door slammed shut, and the chains sprang away, releasing him as if he were repulsive to them. The kidnapped Galbadian Headmaster glared defiantly, his spirit also having recovered with his skin, but he knew better than to touch the door. It wasn't locked, in the normal sense. But he had learnt the hard way that the magic wards around it couldn't be avoided and caused bone-breaking convulsions.

"Now, I'll ask you one more time, what is SeeD's true purpose?" Kylari paced around the cage, watching Martine turn to follow her. His eyes were haunted now, wary, scared of what she might do next. He no longer had the will to resist her but...

"I don't know." Still the same protestation of ignorance. Kylari growled. After all he had gone through it had to be true. Unfortunately for Martine, she wasn't going to let him go just because, for once, someone hadn't been lying to her.

"Then you will help me find out." There was no response. Kylari shrugged. "I did not mean that you had a choice in the matter." Martine's eyes widened as the sorceress turned away. There were some spells that were too complex to commit to memory, and too infrequently used besides.

The syllables of the words seemed to take on a life of their own as they were spoken. Martine could almost see half-formed ghosts begin to cluster around the cage. Even the language, whatever it was, had never been meant to be uttered by a human throat. There were strange breaks and ululations, glottal stops and weird keening sounds all mixed in with a harsher undertone.

The silence when Kylari ceased the chant was worse than the chant itself. Martine couldn't see anything, but the sorceress could. She cackled as she watched him turning around and around, able to sense the presence of some malevolent being, but not yet able to see it.

The silence was replaced by Martine's screams as the nether-ghoul pounced on him. Flesh blackened and charred in places, simply falling away in others. Around his chest the flesh just vanished, leaving only scraps of skin clinging to the white bone of ribs. His face began to melt, literally, the features flowing and pooling further down than they should ever have been. Both eyes were obscured, and the bone of his nose seemed to float in a smooth expanse of skin.

A ghostly hand swiped at his chin, at the pooling facial flesh, ripping them away to leave the lower jaw exposed and bloody. Then the blisters began to form, pushing out clumps of hair across his scalp and peppering his face.

Kylari was satisfied. With a word she called the nether-ghoul away from its prey. Half-sated and correspondingly half-visible, the creature growled in protest, but could not disobey the sorceress who had summoned it. Kylari smirked. There was little doubt in her mind that Leonhart would be able to destroy the creature easily now that it was nearly real, but he would still have to give himself away to do so. She had the ideal guard for the prisoners that she would soon be 'entertaining'.

"It'll be good to get back to Garden." Quistis yawned from the back of the car. She and Zell – her husband, she thought with a slight smile – had been out of contact for three weeks on a deep cover mission in Galbadia. Admittedly, the assignment hadn't been that bad, but she was still looking forwards to seeing familiar faces, and not having to think twice before speaking.

"Yeah." Zell agreed wholeheartedly. Quistis' giggle at his vehemence collided with another yawn, and she coughed and spluttered for a minute as she tried to get herself back under control. Zell shot her an amused glance in the rear-view mirror.

His attention was dragged forcefully back to the car as the engine suddenly rattled loudly and died. Zell groaned. It was typical, they managed to complete the mission on time and without incident, and, with two days leave already granted by Squall, things decided to go wrong. Fortunately it was only early evening, and the weather was nice enough that they could hike to Deling City easily enough – if he couldn't fix whatever was wrong...

"So do we start walking?" Quistis peered over her husband's shoulder into the car's engine. Zell sighed and straightened.

"I guess. I don't know what's wrong with it." A frown creased his forehead, and he absently ran a greasy hand through his blond hair, leaving a thick black streak though the dyed locks. Quistis stifled a giggle at his appearance as they started walking towards the city...

Half a mile down the road and they still couldn't pick out Deling City's dark mass. Normally at this time it would have been lit by a few scattered lights, but the entire plain was dark. Of course, it wasn't impossible that there'd been a power-outage...

Zell and Quistis shared a frown. Something didn't feel right about this...

By the time they reached the great plains where Deling City should have been, it was clear that something spectacular – and horrific – had happened. Deling City's massive bulk was no more. Instead there was an area of disturbed earth where the city had once been. It was almost as if the earth had risen up against the city and swallowed it whole.

"A tragedy." Both Zell and Quistis automatically swung around, dropping into their respective defensive stances. Rinoa ignored them, staring at the disturbed earth beyond. All that remained of Deling City. Galbadia's once proud capital. Her voice sounded strange, but whether the edge of glee was the threat of hysteria or something more sinister – neither Zell nor Quistis could tell. She also looked different somehow, taller and more childlike – but in the gathering gloom it was hard to make out specific details. After all, they hadn't seen her for a while.

"Rinoa? What happened?" Rinoa arched a regal eyebrow at them both.

"You don't know..." she let the sentence trail off, realising that they'd been on a mission and genuinely didn't know what had happened. Even better, they clearly didn't know anything about herself or Kylari. It was the chance of a lifetime, to catch these two unawares. She could have such fun with them, fun she'd been denied with Martine...but she was under orders. Kylari wanted these two, and wanted them undamaged in transit.

Unfortunately she still didn't have a good poker face.

"What's going on Rinoa?" The sorceress attempted to look innocent, then gave in as it became clear that they weren't going to fall for it. She sneered at them, allowing her wings to explode from her back. Instantly their suspicions hardened. Something was wrong. The once creamy-white wings were now a sickly red-brown, and the tips themselves looked as though they'd been dipped in blood.

"War's going on, Zell..." Rinoa snarled at him, having accepted the new colour of her wings with a glance. "Your precious commander buried Galbadia, and you're both coming with me." Her head tilted to one side as she regarded them, a twisted smile appearing on her lips. "But don't worry, dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori." (1)

There was no time for either SeeD to react. The world began to spin, and darkness fell with a thud of finality.

Kylari stared at the two SeeDs chained to the wall that Martine had only recently vacated. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips thinned as she confirmed what she had suspected. Like the Galbadian Headmaster, the minds of these SeeDs were also closed to her. The sorceress shrugged the irritation aside and turned to Rinoa, a smile on her face.

"Well done." Rinoa's eyes glowed with pleasure at the praise. "I have another task for you. A more difficult task. Do you think you can do it well?" Rinoa nodded eagerly. "Good." Kylari purred.

Rinoa listened to her instructions, then took her leave, vanishing in a shower of dark sparks just as Quistis and Zell began to awake. Kylari cackled, startling the SeeDs into full awareness. She was going to have far more fun with these two than she had with Martine. As Zell and Quistis stared in horror at the sorceress, Kylari smiled cruelly.

"Look at the saviours of the world tremble. Oh, how the mighty have fallen..."

AN: woohoo! dances in celebration Finally managed to bully my muses into letting me write this chapter :) Hehehe, much gore for Martine and similar in store for Quistis and Zell sighs I'm all happy cause my muses gave in before I did :o :p

(1) 'Dulce et Decorum est' is the title of a poem (I forget by whom), which contains the lines 'Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori'. This is latin, and means 'it is sweet and right to die for one's country'. The poem, I hasten to add is about war (WW1 I think), and is using it in a sarcastic sense.

Anyway, three chapters to go!


	11. Tensions

AN: Grr, yet another new chapter rolls eyes  mind you, this was kinda needed...

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Eleven Tensions

"What?"  Squall's voice was dangerously quiet – a fact that didn't escape the messenger's notice.  Swallowing nervously the SeeD repeated his message, cursing the ill fortune that had seen him draw the short straw for carrying the bad tidings to the Commander of Garden.

"Trepe and the Chickenwuss?"  Seifer repeated, still not quite able to believe it.  First Martine had been abducted – an acceptable, if regrettable, loss – and now Squall's two remaining friends from the war against Ultemecia.  Instinctively he knew Squall was going to take this personally – even if Kylari didn't realise what she'd done.

"Yessir."  The messenger needlessly replied.  He was staring at Squall's back, probably wondering if he was going to survive the next few moments.  Privately Seifer wondered as well.  He could feel the rage boiling in Squall's veins as if it were his own, and was pretty sure the brunette had turned away to hide blazing golden eyes.  Or worse, red daemon's eyes – the sign of a sorcerer or sorceress on the verge of permanent insanity.

After a few minutes Squall seemed to take control of himself, the pure anger becoming denser and more focussed.  Squall had a plan - or a goal at least – and Seifer had no doubts that it was going to be extreme and dangerous.

Of course, assuming things could be dangerous – for instance, assuming that Squall was less emotional, simply because he didn't show it.  But in this case the assumption that Quistis and Zell had been kidnapped was justified.  Their tracking signals – sub-dermal implants standard for covert operatives – had gone from the Great Plains of Galbadia, to the Cape of Good Hope in a heartbeat.  Something that could only be the work of a sorceress.

Despite it being the location of the orphanage where Edea lived, the lack of official communication from either her or the two SeeDs had led to the standard assumption of the worst.  If there was still no official word after three days, then that assumption would become the official view of the situation, and the appropriate course of action – rescue or retaliation – would be taken.  Or things could happen sooner if other information was received.  Garden did not negotiate with those who tried to blackmail them by holding SeeDs hostage.  Never, under no circumstances.  But there were always groups who figured they would be the exception. 

As far as the SeeDs at Balamb were concerned, whoever had taken Quistis and Zell was either already regretting it, or they would be when Squall got through with them...if there was enough left of them to express that regret was another matter.

Everyone, sensibly, seemed to have deserted the Garden on urgent errands just before Squall, Seifer and the messenger returned.  Squall, despite appearances to the contrary, was still seething.  As he stalked through the centre circle to the elevator, he radiated a stony chill that was physically palpable.

It was times like these that Seifer, noticing the faintest shimmer of ice crystals in the air around Squall, wondered why the brunette inspired such loyalty, when everyone was scared witless by him.  Of course, it might, he thought, have something to do with the sense of relief that he was – however much it didn't feel like it – on their side.

Dampen your aura.  The blond warned, noticing the SeeD staring at the shimmering air surrounding his Commander.  Squall looked and felt surprised for a brief second, then the chill in the air noticeably lifted.

Sorry.  It's just...  His mental voice trailed off, and for an instant his anger surged once more.  ...I don't want to believe Edea has joined them, but it's a possibility we have to consider now.

He blinked.  Edea defecting to the other side hadn't even entered his thoughts, but now it did, Squall's extreme reaction made more sense to the blond.  Squall wasn't just reacting to the loss of Quistis and Zell, but to the potential loss of the woman who'd been a mother to them all. 

Seifer didn't know where Squall and the others had found the courage and resolve to fight Edea during the Ultemecia war, not once they'd discovered who she was to them, but he suspected that to fight her again would kill a part of Squall that the brunette couldn't afford to lose.

That the world couldn't afford for him to lose.

His soul.

They collided, almost literally, with another messenger as they stepped out of the elevator on the second floor.

She saluted hastily, looking somewhat relieved that the first messenger was unharmed.  Seifer coughed to bring her back on task, sensing Squall preparing to lash out with some of his stored anger.  The hint worked, and she flushed in embarrassment.

"Sir, President Loire of Esthar requested a video conference ASAP."  Squall raised an eyebrow, seemingly nonchalant, but Seifer could feel his irritation and concern.

"Did he say what he wanted?"

"No sir, not specifically anyway.  He did mutter something about trouble and sorceresses, but he ended the call straight after, so I don't think I was supposed to hear."

I bet she was.  Seifer muttered.

I agree.  Laguna can be too cunning for his own good sometimes.  That wasn't necessarily true, Seifer thought, but the man's timing frequently left much to be desired.

"Go easy on him, huh Squall?  He wasn't to know about Quistis and Zell."  He returned Squall's glare with his best neutral expression.  The brunette knew he was right, he just didn't like the fact that Seifer could figure him out so easily.  No that the ongoing – albeit one-way - 'cold war' between son and father made it hard to realise that Squall would take his anger out on such a prime target.

The situation room was quietly busy, as always.  From here every active field operation was coordinated and/or monitored.  It was here where all the behind-the-scenes work vital to mission success took place.  Even during the war against Ultemecia, their group had been almost constantly monitored by people in this room, although they'd been given precious little assistance.  But for now there wasn't much happening.  The failure to locate Kylari meant that there was no reconnaissance or operation planning going on, and with Garden only accepting the bare minimum of contracts to fund itself – due to its current state of alert – there were only a handful of operatives being monitored.  That, however, was likely to change as soon as Squall put whatever plan he had formulated into action.  The question was, would he first seek confirmation that this was Kylari's work?

Even Squall was feeling unsure.  Laguna's cryptic message had him worried, and there was every possibility that it had some bearing on the three kidnapped SeeDs.  Of course, it might have been Laguna muttering about SeeD's stated purpose of neutralising sorceress threats.  If it was the latter, Seifer decided grimly, then he would let Laguna get what Squall was bound to give him.  With Garden officially at war with a sorceress, such a blunder was unforgivable.  Typical of Laguna, but unforgivable nonetheless.

The brunette made his decision – although it grated sorely against the instinct to rescue his friends first.

"Set up a secure link to Esthar from my office."  Squall ordered, collaring a random technician walking past.  There was no protest.  The SeeD took one look at Squall's expression, set the mug of coffee in her hands down on a vacant table, and left at a run. 

"Inform me immediately if locators QTr1618 and Zdi1720 move again, and set up a terrain map of the area – focus on possible incursion points, with an emphasis on concealment."  The technician he'd buttonholed this time, already at a console displaying locator locations, nodded, fingers flying across the keyboard.

Satisfied, Squall turned and strode out of the room, leaving Seifer to dismiss the first messenger and hurry after his sorcerer.

The technician had just finished setting up the secure link to Esthar when Squall and Seifer arrived in Squall's third floor office.  With a crisp nod, she handed over the conversation with Kiros to Squall, and left the room.

"Kiros."

"Squall."  There was a pause.  "I don't wish to tell you how to handle your affairs..."

"Then don't."  Squall snapped, glaring at the dark skinned man.

"But," Kiros continued, as if Squall had not spoken.  "In light of current events, I would advise that you not let things go unsaid that you may later regret not saying."  Squall glared daggers, with absolutely no effect.

"I was told President Loire had an urgent message for me."  He growled.  "What was it?"  Kiros glanced off to the side of the screen, as if someone had just walked into the room, then back.

"I'll let him tell you himself.  But remember what I said."  Kiros stood and moved aside, his place quickly taken by Laguna's familiar face.  He looked resigned, sympathetic and hopeful – a combination that Seifer had only ever seen Laguna pull off successfully.

"I apologise if Kiros has been harassing you."  Laguna said with a sigh, sounding harassed himself.  Seifer noticed that the President, usually as energetic as Selphie had been, seemed tired and worn.  Older somehow.

"The message."  Squall replied curtly, not commenting if he noticed the differences that Seifer did.

"I have confirmation that Rinoa is in collusion with the sorceress Kylari, and also a positive identification of Kylari by a reliable source.  Placing her in Centra."  Squall remained expressionless, although Laguna had just sealed the fate of the orphanage.

"I see.  A messenger could have told me this."  Laguna flinched slightly, eyes flicking to someone off screen.  "We believe Kylari to be based at the Centra orphanage."  Squall added, seeming to relent slightly.  Seifer knew better.  Squall wasn't revealing anything top secret, but the information might just shake something loose from Laguna.  The man was not a good poker player – not when Squall was in the game.  Indeed, the President's eyes widened at the revelation.

"The Centra orphanage?  You're sure she's based herself there?"  He leaned fractionally closer to the screen, eager to hear the answer.  Squall frowned.

What isn't he telling us?  The brunette mused to Seifer.

He knows something.  The blond agreed.  What is a different matter.  But there's someone else there who's involved in this mess – see how his eyes keep slipping to something off screen.

"I don't have time for this."  Squall snapped abruptly.  "If you have information regarding the orphanage or the sorceress Edea Kramer, then tell us now – before we attack."  He watched Laguna gape soundlessly for a few moments, then snorted, scant patience exhausted.  "Seifer, take over here."  He stood and moved aside, ignoring Laguna's protests.  "I'm going down to the situation room."  That said, the brunette turned and left.

Why me?  Seifer wondered, sitting down at the terminal.  Laguna grinned weakly at him, as if to express understanding, or sympathy.  Seifer glared in return.  He didn't entirely agree with Squall's flat refusal to make up with his father, but considering what the brunette had gone through because of Laguna's actions, he didn't interfere.  Not as it seemed Kiros had taken it upon himself to do.

Laguna had done what was best for the majority, both at that point in time, and in the future – although how much of the future they'd known had always been doubtful.  But Squall was doing the same now – although he had no children to abandon, and Seifer was uncomfortably aware that if the choice between the world – which Squall didn't see as having ever done him any favours – and someone important to the brunette, ever came up, the world would probably lose.  Or Squall would find a way to sacrifice himself so that everyone else won.  But besides the differences caused by Laguna's actions, there was little doubt in the blond's mind that if the two reconciled, they'd have more in common than they thought.

"President Loire."  Seifer finally acknowledged the man on the screen, forgoing the dip of the head that was his usual token recognition of the man's status.  Squall was pissed with him, and Squall was his immediate superior, as well as his sorcerer, best that Laguna figure out from the start that Seifer was also not in the best of humours.

"Seifer!"  He beamed – one of the few people who could smile at the ex-sorceress knight and mean it – totally missing the subtle warning.  "How are you?"  His enthusiasm faltered in the face of one of Seifer's more pointed glares.  "Um, yes.  Well.  The orphanage, right?"  Seifer nodded.

"And Edea, if you have any word."  Laguna seemed to cringe at the name.

"Well, nothing about the orphanage, but Edea is..."

"Right here."  The familiar voice overrode Laguna's from off screen.

"Yeah."  Laguna agreed.  "I was hoping Squall would talk with her but..."

"Seifer will do, Mr President."  The off screen voice interrupted.  Laguna brightened.

"Right then, I'll let you two talk."  The Estharian President virtually fled from his place, replaced by Edea's serene face.  But something was wrong with her too.  She looked like she had been crying, her eyes were red-rimmed, and her usual thick mascara looked newly applied.  Her hair was also scraped back into its bun with more severity than usual.

"Edea."  Seifer acknowledged, careful to keep both tone and expression neutral.  Just because she was in Esthar talking to Laguna didn't mean she was a friend – or a foe.  Typically she started with a question he wasn't expecting.

"What has happened to that boy's manners?"  Seifer pinched the bridge of his nose and carefully counted to ten before answering, still feeling the intense pressure of Squall's anger at the back of his mind.

"We think Kylari has Quis and Zell."  It was only when he realised he was surprised by Edea's cold glare, that Seifer realised he'd expected her to be sympathetic.

"Don't use your losses as an excuse."  She sneered, sounding more like the Edea he'd known during the war against Ultemecia than the one he'd known as a young orphan at the orphanage.  "Cid is dead, and by my hands, but you do not see me throwing childish tantrums."  Seifer bristled, only refraining from an angry retort because he realised the implications of Cid's death.  After a long, tense pause, Edea spoke again.  "Inform Commander Leonhart that I will come to Balamb Garden in two days time."  Seifer raised an eyebrow.

"And why is that?  You realise that you've given us absolutely no reason to trust you.  After all, you were possessed during the last threat, and this time you've gone so far as to kill your own knight.  Despite the fact that you'll go insane unless you find another or pass your powers on."  Edea frowned irritably.

"I know who Kylari is, and what she intends.  I also intend to carry out Adel's plan."

Adel's plan will doom us within days.  Squall muttered, having 'listened' through his knight.  Of course, Seifer couldn't say anything to Edea.

"I'll let Squall know..."  The blond found himself looking at a blank screen.  "You do not see me throwing childish tantrums."  He mocked the dead screen, snorting in disgust.  Sometimes he wondered if Edea realised how lucky she was that people had accepted her helplessness against Ultemecia's control.

Adel's plan?  He queried his sorcerer.

To bring Ellone back to Earth and have her take the powers of all the sorceresses not under Kylari's control.

But...but that's madness!  Seifer protested.  All she needs to do is to kill Ellone and we've lost!  Squall silently agreed.

Fortunately I think Ellone will see that too.  If she stays up there then Kylari has to work to get to her, and that at least buys us time.  Seifer was stunned, hearing his beliefs that Squall would sacrifice anything to save those close to him, being shattered by the cold words.

Time?  He asked quietly.  That buys us...time?  What about Ellone's life?  He could feel Squall's emotions getting dimmer.  Don't you dare Squall Leonhart!  Don't you dare!  His eyes flashed angrily, but the rage subsided as Squall's emotions flooded back and swamped it.

Time is all we can buy.  We're not going to win this war Seifer...  I've seen it.  We're going to lose, and the world is going to be destroyed.  The brunette's bleak mental voice faded to silence.

You're wrong.  He had to be wrong.  We can win this Squall.  They had to be able to win...didn't they?  There was no reaction from the brunette.  Didn't Ultemecia seem invincible at the start?  But you kept going.  You kept fighting.  You made it past every obstacle – and you defeated her.  There was still no response, although Seifer could tell Squall was listening.  So what if Kylari was the power behind Ultemecia.  With me by your side, who can stand against us?

How about a thousand Ultemecias?  A million?  Seifer frowned in confusion.  Forget it.  Squall sounded resigned.  I'll fight on because it's all I know how to do.  It's all I knew how to do against Ultemecia too.  But I'll fight with my eyes open to the truth – this is humanity's last stand.

AN: Hmm... that was longer than I expected.  And all angsty too...  Oh well, two to go!


	12. The Dark Tower

AN: Whew, now I can appease my muses and write this chpt :)

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Eleven The Dark Tower

The tower loomed over the bleak Centra landscape.  Once, what seemed an eternity ago, it had been a lighthouse on the Cape of Good Hope.  Once, there had been an orphanage there, and a meadow of flowers that seemed to go on forever.  Now there was only the tower, taller than the lighthouse had ever been, it's foundations stretching over the orphanage ruins and bringing a harsh end to the flower field.

It wasn't a sight to inspire awe, or wonder, although it was wondrous enough to do so - under different circumstances.  The strange greyish material it was made of seemed to exude an aura of menace, and the plants within 100 feet had all wilted in fear.  Had anything dared to creep into its shadow, where the sun never dared glance, and the air was cold enough to freeze tears as they fell, it would have discovered that the tower was also exuding a strange oily coating.  But nothing dared - and nothing discovered.

Its commanding view of the surrounding land only made the door - small in comparison to the tower's height - seem more menacing.  An open challenge for her enemies to come before her.  Or for her friends...

When Seifer had arrived in the situation room after Edea's abrupt end to the conversation, he found Squall busy making adjustments to the landscape map that the technician had produced.  Rather than altering the surface, he was describing - in considerable detail - a complex network of tunnels running beneath the island.

The caves had been there long before the tower had existed, long before even the lighthouse existed, but there was a feel to them - in places - that revealed them as being constructs, deliberately built by a long extinct civilisation.  There had been later alterations too, where the tunnels were clearly that.  These were the adaptations that had been made when the lighthouse had been built - an underground route, safe from the raging waves and wind of the fiercest of the Cape's storms, between the lighthouse and the house on the mainland.  Still later alterations - for the lighthouse, or a lighthouse, had existed on the Cape for millennia - were clearly from the sorceress/sorcerer wars.  Deadfalls and other traps marked with vivid red warning symbols where they were still active, blue where they had been triggered or neutralised.

'What happened there?'  He'd queried, pointing to an area with many more blue marks than red - near the impact point of the first Lunar cry.

'Their last stand.'  Squall had replied tonelessly.

The last stand of the sorcerers on the Southern Isle.  Squall's memories of what had happened were vague, since his particular line hadn't been directly involved.  In a way Seifer was glad.  The sorcerers involved had been stripped of their powers and their lives, their lines ended permanently - probably by the same force that had started them.  If Squall hadn't been the last sorcerer, then who would?  Someone, he was sure, nowhere near as qualified for the trials the brunette had faced.

Edea had never known the extent of the tunnels - or their many dangers - but the children in her care had inevitably gravitated to them.  Still, if it was a measure of bravery to camp out in the caves closest to the beach, childish senses, as yet undulled by adult cynicism, were sensitive to the aura exuded by the magical traps further in.  No one ever ventured beyond the point where the light of the outside never reached.  No one except Squall.  Innate curiosity, and perhaps a sense of familiarity from the magic of the traps, had drawn him deeper into the caverns than anyone else had ever gone.  Without knowing - then - he'd avoided both magical and mundane traps as he travelled, some part of his subconscious mind making a note of each.  It was there he'd seen his first dead person.  As he thought.  Now he knew otherwise - not that the otherwise was less pleasant.

His experiences in the tunnels had changed something, some awareness of himself deep on the subconscious level.  Still too young to know what his future held, he had nonetheless realised that he would have to be strong enough to make decisions that might set him against those close to him.  Ellone's sudden departure had only seemed to confirm it.

Seifer stumbled and bit back another curse as he tripped for what must have been the hundredth time.  The caves leading to the 'secret' back entrance of Kylari's tower were cold and damp, the walls slimy with a thick layer of fungi and moss.  To his chagrin neither the fungi nor the moss were luminous, although he was relieved to find that there were no convenient torches indicating the route was known.

Squall, on the other hand, was having no difficulties seeing where he was going, thanks to perfect darkvision.  That fact only made it worse, especially since he'd explained that any other light sources were out because some of the traps would be triggered by them.  Further insult had been added when the brunette had turned without warning, and scooped him into his arms, ignoring the blond's outraged cry of surprise and indignity.  Fortunately, although he'd felt the smaller man's amusement quite clearly, the sorcerer had restrained himself, only explaining that some traps would trigger on contact with a non-sorcerer.  Seifer wasn't sure how far he'd actually been carried - it felt like forever thanks to his embarrassment - but eventually he'd been set back on his feet. 

Secretly though, he thought it had been rather nice - both to be within Squall's protective embrace, and not to be falling over every few seconds.  If Squall heard the thought, he gave no sign.

The caves were drier now, and a faint blue glow emanating from somewhere ahead meant that Seifer could see the larger projections he'd been falling over in the darkness.  Of course, there was Squall's shadow to contend with, so he was still concentrating enough on the ground that he almost collided with the brunette when he stopped abruptly.  The blue light was stronger here, indicating they'd found its source, and Seifer stepped to his sorcerer's side, ready for anything.

Anything, that is, except what he saw.

It could have been amber, if amber was blue and glowed.  It might also have been crystal, if it was faceted and cold.  But whatever the material was, it was smooth and opalescent, and as well as light it gave off a faint warmth.

"What...?"  Seifer muttered, gaping at the stuff.

"Solidified air."  Squall answered.  "A stasis trap."  He was extremely still, tense, as though waiting for something to happen.  "They expected to return and relocate those trapped, in all likelihood.  But they were killed instead, and those trapped have remained in stasis since then."

"Uh...I don't see anyone..."  It dawned on Seifer why Squall was so tense.  "Shit.  Someone freed them?"  Squall nodded slightly.  A shiver ran down Seifer's spine. 

"They would have been conscious of time passing - they're probably quite insane by now.  But they'll still remember their purpose."  Anger was starting to creep into the brunette's voice.  Anger and...hatred? 

"They were Kenthra."  Seifer realised.  "Well, we shouldn't find it too hard to find them.  Just find the people referring to places by names no one's heard in millennia."  Instantly he knew he'd been too glib.  Squall literally snarled.

"They're murdering bastards!"  The brunette hissed furiously.  "They weren't content with killing sorcerers - they wanted anyone with any sort of link to us annihilated!  They're the reason I'm the last!"  Eyes blazing - despite the pendant - Squall almost howled the last words.  Seifer winced, but Squall seemed to shake off the fury as quickly as it had come.  With a last glare at the emptied trap, the brunette spun on his heel and stalked away into the darkness once more.

Quistis huddled over the still and bloody form of Zell.  She held him to her chest, rocking slowly, almost as though trying to pass her own life into his battered body.  Kylari had been quick to take advantage of their relationship.  After all, what husband could stand by and watch his wife tortured within an inch of her life without begging for it to be done to him instead?  Only, Kylari hadn't done it instead.  She had done it as well, and taken pleasure in it.  What she hadn't counted on was the unexpected protection their unconditional love for each other gave them.  In face, Zell and Quistis had taken a great deal of strength from discovering that the hideous wraith the sorceress had summoned to rape Quistis, couldn't get near her because their love was too strong.

Kylari, on the other hand, had not been impressed.  She had taken it out repeatedly in physical torture that neither SeeD could have imagined, but fortunately had declined to take their degradation into her own, physical, hands.  There had been a moment of fear that she might get one of her human underlings involved, but that had, thankfully, passed.  Finally seeming to tire of asking the same questions, and getting the same answers, she had crushed Zell's chest, leaving it a mass of splintered bone and lung, and then teleported them both into a cell somewhere in the tower.

Neither of them had much hope of rescue.  They had seen first hand how powerful the new enemy was - although Rinoa's comment about Deling city still didn't make sense - and Squall's theory that Ultemecia had been manipulated by Kylari now rang true in their minds.  They had the faint hope that their locators were still active, but unless someone had seen the switch in location as it happened, and if the signal could even penetrate the tower's walls, they were as good as lost.  Either way, Quistis doubted Zell would last long enough for a rescue to reach them before his wounds were too critical to heal.

She winced as he drew in another harsh breath, hearing the blood from his punctured lungs gurgling in his throat.  Sobbing quietly, Quistis curled herself tighter around her husband, whispering broken nothings into his ear.  There was no indication that Zell had heard, only the faint rattle as he fought to stay alive.

They had, to Seifer's relief, finally made it out of the tunnels and their uneven floors, and into the tower.  There was sporadic lighting here, a spluttering torch in a rusted bracket every few metres.  It was all very old, despite having only been built recently, and almost screamed 'dungeon'.  High tech or low tech, old or new, dungeons seemed to exude an aura of despair even as they were created.  A foreshadow of the misery to come.  It was particularly strong here.

Surprisingly though, there seemed to be no occupants.  The cells that they had passed so far had the atmosphere, but not the content.  Seifer couldn't say that it was a bad thing, but it was slightly disconcerting.  There was a part of his mind that was psyching itself up to see some poor wretch glaring out accusingly as they walked past, and despite the relief he felt when a cell was revealed as empty, there was always the uncomfortable thought of why that might be.

Seifer shivered, feeling a cold draft pass through him.  Once he might have simply put it down to a sixth sense warning him of danger, but since becoming Squall's knight it had taken on a more sinister meaning.  A dead spirit had just walked through him.  The dead were being drawn to this place of misery and death like moths to a flame.  They couldn't help it.  In the brief instant between life and death, the already dead could, for a fraction of a second, touch life once more.  Unfortunately, depending on the circumstances of death and the strength of will of the dying, such a touch could result in the soul of the dying failing to reach the land of the dead.  That was, Irvine had patiently explained, how ghosts and other less pleasant things were brought into existence.  Fortunately the dead couldn't see when things would die until it was a certainty - right at the last minute - so most people died without ever knowing the danger they'd been in until they were safe.

The blond leaped forwards between Squall and a cell, drawing Hyperion as something launched itself at the small, barred window.  It scrabbled desperately at the rusted iron, and the dark bloodstains that already coated the metal and wood slowly reddened as new blood flowed over it.  Seifer took a hasty step back, almost colliding with Squall, but stopped in morbid fascination as flashes of white became visible from the franticly scratching finger.

"Bone."  Seifer felt his stomach lurch at Squall's explanation.  The creature also froze.

"Oinne?"  It seemed to be trying to repeat the word, but something was seriously wrong with its voice.  Seifer couldn't see what, since it's head and face were concealed by tattered scraps of blanket.  "Haurl?"  Seifer found himself gently but firmly moved to one side as Squall stepped closer to the cell.

"You know me..."  Seifer could hear the frown in Squall's voice.  "Martine?"  The blond gaped.  This was Martine?  The Galbadian Headmaster who'd thwarted Ultemecia's plans for the Galbadian SeeDs by stalling long enough to evacuate, and then surrendering?  The creature was wailing, an eerie, piercing noise that rose and fell like a siren.  There were words in there somewhere, but Seifer couldn't make out what they were - he guessed Squall was reading the surface thoughts of the Galbadian in order to understand.  Finally the brunette stepped back.

"And?"  Seifer queried, carefully not looking in Martine's direction.

"She's trying to find out SeeD's true purpose."  Squall was already frowning in confusion.  "She must have thought he knew."

"But why?"  Seifer wondered aloud.  Ultemecia had been set on learning the same thing, the reason she had forced him to torture Squall - in the mistaken belief that those sent after her were bound to know all the secrets of SeeD.  "And how did that myth start?"  Squall shrugged, still lost in thought.

"We reinstated him after Ultemecia's defeat, so she must have thought we had no choice because of what he knew.  But we made his actions a matter of public record, and if she was manipulating Ultemecia then she'd know that what we said was true."  Martine wailed from behind Squall, and the brunette nodded.  "Yes, I know.  Stand back."  The creature obediently shuffled backwards.  "Seifer, knock a couple of those iron bars into the cell."  Frowning in confusion, the blond obediently did so, hearing grateful wail as one of the bars clattered to the floor of the cell.

"Why...?"  Seifer queried as they hurried away from Martine's cell.

"What she did to him..."  Squall shuddered slightly, and tightened his grip on Lionheart.  "The only thing that can kill him is iron.  She left him that much - but she also left him with the means to kill himself just out of reach.  Forever."  It was Seifer's turn to shudder.  Eternity in that cell, with iron bars so close - but so far...

They both froze as the sound of Quistis quietly sobbing reached their ears.  Quistis didn't break easily, which meant something was seriously wrong.

"Zell..."  They spoke simultaneously, but when Seifer moved to head straight for the source, he found himself restrained by Squall.  The brunette shook his head slowly, looking as though he was listening to something else.

"There's something guarding them.  Something not quite here..."  Seifer frowned.  "Not quite alive, but not quite dead either."  Squall clarified.  If anything Seifer's confusion deepened.  Squall sighed.  "Just, be wary."

With a stern glare to reinforce his words, Squall led the way forwards.  Seifer was about to protest that as a knight it was his duty to take point, when he noticed that Lionheart's glow was somehow muted.  On closer examination the blond realised that Squall was drawing some of the blade's energy into himself, forming a shield of sorts.  Since he had no such protection unless Squall openly used his magic - he guessed shells and protects weren't going to cut it here - it made sense for the brunette to go first.  But that didn't mean he had to like it.

The sobbing was closer now, but Seifer could sense whatever Squall had noticed earlier.  It was something dangerous, and magical...  And it was very close...

The nether-ghoul had sensed the two long before they'd sensed it, but then its senses were sharpened by its hunger, and its eagerness to finish feeding and assume a mortal form.  It longed to stalk the world without restriction once more, to know again the feeling of flesh, and the adrenaline rush of the hunt and kill.  But it was dimly aware that, in the predator/prey scheme of things, itself and the two forms approaching were equally ranked.  Normally, had it not been under a magical geas, it would have ceded the field to the two and searched for easier prey, but as circumstances were...

Two things happened at the same instant.  The nether-ghoul leapt at Squall from around the corner, and Quistis realised that Zell had stopped breathing.

Only faintly visible, the nether-ghoul crashed into Squall and knocked him to the ground before either he or Seifer registered the shape flying through the air.  Fortunately for Squall, the weak shield of Lionheart's energy was enough to block the effects of the casual contact.  Unfortunately, the ghoul was too indistinct, and too close to him for Seifer to make a clean strike.

In the stunned pause where the nether-ghoul registered that it had failed to drain its prey's life, and Seifer cursed his inability to see it, Quistis screamed...

Its senses far exceeding the sensitivity of even a sorcerer's, the scream caused the nether-ghoul's muscles snap taut as it flung itself skywards in instinctive self-defence.  Unfortunately for it, whilst the tactics might have saved it in its home dimension, here it came down onto a waiting Lionheart, impaling itself through the chest just as Seifer's vague but determined strike severed its head.

The corpse shimmered and vanished as Seifer helped Squall back to his feet. 

At the sound of heartfelt sobs, both SeeDs dashed around the next corner towards the cell where the noise was coming from.  Squall didn't pause, grabbing Seifer's hand and dragging him headlong towards the closed and locked door.  Seifer closed his eyes, having seen the iron bars at around head height, and waited for the impact...

When all he felt was a chill and then Squall forcing him to stop, the blond gingerly opened his eyes.  And blinked in shock.  They were inside the cell with Quistis and Zell, apparently having passed through iron bars - which should have been impervious to whatever magic Squall had cast.  But there was no time for questions.  Zell was clearly in trouble.  A push at his shoulder sent Seifer stumbling towards the door again, and Squall made an unlocking motion when he looked up in confusion.  Of course, the blond realised vaguely, couldn't have Quistis wondering how the hell they got in.

Turning towards the door, he fished the lock-picks from his coat pocket and set to work on the old lock.

AN: hmm, so...  the nether-ghoul dead, Zell nearly dead, Seifer covering up for Squall...  still, at least my muses are now cooperating with me :)


	13. Arachnophobia

AN: Well, here goes for the final chpt of this fic :) Don't panic tho, the 'Last Sorcerer' arc continues (or will continue) in Battle Lines ;p  Gomen for all the fic jumps, I just didn't want this to be a monster of what, 58 or so chpts ;) see – said I'd got this behemoth plotted out already :p

Disclaimers: final fantasy belongs to Squaresoft and not bawls eyes out to me...  However, I have (so far) gotten away with hijacking the characters and locations for my own, and (hopefully) others' entertainment.  The plot and original characters are mine, and I'm not so generous as to go offering them around, so unless you ask, you shall not receive! ;p

Warnings: Well, not really as befits the last chpt of a fic, this kinda ends on a leeeeetle bit of a cliff...  Um, that in itself probably rates it for teaser status, general warnings of SxS and language, maybe a bit of Rinoa bashing.  Only other thing worth mentioning is the QxZ relationship :)  Just seemed to sneak in there, arigato to whichever muse pointed out that people might find QxZ slightly icky ;p nothin hot and heavy, although fluff may go flying!

Book Two of the Sorcerer Arc Death's Angel Chapter Thirteen Arachnophobia 

As Seifer set to work on the lock of the door, Squall made his way over to Quistis and Zell.  The former instructor was cradling her husband's broken form, and Squall knew, the instant he laid a bare hand to Zell's forehead, that this was serious. 

"Curaga..."  But he already knew it would take much more than a mere Curaga spell to heal Zell's injuries.  "Curaga."  Squall repeated the spell, this time using it as a cover for his own, more powerful, magic.

Zell drew in a new breath with a harsh rattle, his back arching off the floor as his ribs moved back into place, healing along with the damage to his lungs.  Warm liquid was dripping slowly to his bare chest...Quistis' tears.  Slowly he opened his eyes, tried to summon the energy to tell her not to cry, that everything would be alright.  Not that he knew everything would be alright.  In all likelihood the sorceress had probably just healed him so that she could inflict more pain...  Zell found the energy to form a faint frown.  The sorceress wouldn't allow Quistis to be so close...didn't trust either of them – with good reason – so who in Hyne's name had healed him?

Quistis recognised the hand that was suddenly resting on Zell's forehead.  Or at least, she thought she did.  A brief glance upwards to see unruly brown hair, along with the voice that spoke the Curaga spell, and she was certain.  Squall.  But he was too late.  She knew that, deep down.  Zell was beyond the help of any Curaga spell.  Only a sorceress could undo the damage that had been inflicted.

"Curaga."  He spoke again, and Quistis let the tears fall.  Squall, so stubborn and determined, even when all hope was gone he would refuse to give up.  He was that kind of person.  It was that determination, the sheer drive to prove that everything could end well, which had seen them successfully through the war against Ultemecia.  But it would not see them through this... 

Zell gave a gasping breath and arched upwards from the ground, and suddenly Quistis' hope leaped anew.

"Squall...?"  How could this be?  Quistis wondered, barely realising she had said his name out loud.  Zell was beyond Curaga magic, beyond anything except a sorceress's healing...

Without thinking Squall looked up as Quistis gasped his name...

Yellow eyes stared into blue...

Then Quistis was scrambling away, mouth working soundlessly, torn in two by leaving Zell in the hands of the sorceress, and yet too afraid to do anything but run.  Squall dropped his head again, blinking fiercely to prevent the tears that threatened to spill over onto his cheeks.  It hurt.  Hyne how it hurt.  He'd known from the moment he became aware of his true nature that this was what awaited him.  That his closest friends, what few he had, would turn from him as if he had the plague itself.  Only Seifer had shown his assumptions to be a lie.  Only Seifer had been able to accept it, and in doing so had become his lover and his knight. 

"Squall?  Quisty?"  Zell was more than a little perplexed.  He knew he'd been close to death, knew that something had just happened to save him, but he'd seen Squall pull miracles out of thin air almost every day of the sorceress war, what was one more?  "What's going on?"  He demanded, struggling to sit upright.  Squall seemed almost, subdued, whilst Quistis...  The blonde SeeD was as far as she could physically get from Squall, and looked like she would still be running if not for the wall.

"It's her..."  Quistis hissed.

"We're here to rescue you Chickenwuss."  Seifer snorted at the same time.  Zell casually flipped a finger at the blond, but otherwise ignored him.

"What do you mean Quistis?"  Zell asked in confusion.  He looked from Squall to his wife and back again.  "It's Squall, and Seifer."  He conceded the glowering blond's presence.  "Why are you acting like this?"

"Because of what I am."  It was Squall who answered.  But it didn't sound like Squall.  He sounded small and broken, an echo of the child who lost his Sis all those years ago.  Slowly, without raising his head, or moving anything other than his arms and hands, Squall removed the Griever pendant that he wore constantly.  Seifer's stance changed, altering so subtly that it was barely noticeable until the chain was off, and he seemed to loom over Squall, protecting him from anything that might attack. 

"Hyne!"  Zell's exclamation was low and heartfelt as Squall raised his head, allowing the blond to see his eyes clearly for the first time.  "You're a sorcerer?"  Zell's emotions weren't sure where to settle.  They danced between fear, which was calmed by his absolute certainty that Squall would never harm any of them, and confusion.  There weren't any sorcerers, were there?  But the evidence to the contrary was staring at.

Zell frowned, understanding Quistis' reaction, but this was still Squall, still his friend.  He was sure it was Squall.    Besides, how many times had Squall done the seemingly impossible and saved his life, saved all of their lives, during the sorceress war?  Now, with this additional knowledge, those miracles seemed ever so slightly more believable.

"There are no sorcerers Zell!"  Quistis' voice sounded like she was verging on the hysterical.  "It has to be her in disguise!"  Zell hadn't lost eye contact with Squall, and now he shook his head.

"How long have we known Squall?"  He asked, not waiting for an answer before he continued.  "This is Squall, but...  if you need proof.  Squall, you remember when you sent Selphie, Irvine and me to the missile base, and then later I cornered you about it in FH."  He barely waited for Squall's faint nod.  "I asked why us three.  What did you tell me?"  Quistis laughed suddenly.

"She'll just read the answer from your mind!"

"Kylari couldn't and neither could Squall."  Seifer interrupted for the first time since saying they had come to rescue the two SeeDs.  "There aren't many people whose minds are open enough for a sorceress or sorcerer to read.  Not in this time.  From what Squall's told me, which isn't a lot, there used to be a lot more.  It seems to be hindering Kylari in this time, for which small mercy we are grateful."  Abashed, Quistis closed her mouth on whatever she had been about to add.

"I said..."  Squall frowned for a moment, eyes defocusing as he remembered.  "I said that I could say I'd sent you three because you were the best, but in reality Selphie had decided she was going.  Irvine was a sniper, and I didn't trust him without knowing his measure.  You I sent because you demonstrated a knack in the deep sea research centre.  I knew you'd be able to do something to at least delay the launch."

"It's Squall."  Zell grimaced.  "How can you remember that word for word?"  He muttered.

"The GFs never took my memories."  Squall replied in a similar mutter.  He had just fastened the pendant back around his neck, and the yellow was already fading from his eyes.  Zell simply grunted.  After discovering Squall was a sorcerer, discovering that he had never really forgotten anything was of little concern.

"Instructor..."  Quistis looked up, and realised with a start that Seifer was offering her a hand up.  Hesitantly she took it, barely noticing that Squall was standing and offering his own hand to Zell.  "Listen very carefully to me Quistis."  Seifer's voice was quiet, but quiet in the way the drawing of a sword was quiet.  "You hurt him more than you'll ever know when you ran from him."  It was clear whom Seifer was talking about.  "If you do anything like that again.  I'll kill you."  Then the blond knight, and Quistis realised with a shock that Seifer was Squall's knight, in a way that he hadn't been Ultemecia's knight, released her hand and turned away.

 "She can't have summoned that nether-ghoul without a book.  It's too complex."  Squall had the set look on his face that Seifer was coming to know all too well. 

"If the book's that important she'll have taken it with her.  She's not an idiot Squall.  Either that or there's more of those things, or worse."  Seifer knew he was arguing in vain.  There was no dissuading the brunette once he got that look on his face.  The end of the world could be coming, but if Squall decided it wasn't, and got that look on his face to go with the decision, Seifer wouldn't back Hyne herself to see the end of the world happen.  It would only take the flat glare added to the look, and Seifer knew he would find himself throwing his arms in the air and agreeing to go look for the book.  "What about Quistis and Zell?"  It was his last argument, and not much of one at that. 

He got the flat glare.

Quistis and Zell, despite being weaponless – or as weaponless as Zell ever got anyway – had opted to join Squall and Seifer.  Seifer thought he could understand.  Better to venture into the unknown of your own free will, and to be doing something, than to be doing nothing and waiting for the unknown to find you.  Besides which, there was nothing wrong with having two more sets of watchful eyes.

"Here."  Squall suddenly stopped at a door, seemingly just like all the others that the sorcerer had ignored.  "It's in here.  I can feel it."  He licked his lips, suddenly dry with anticipation.  There were no wards on the door, no traps.  A gentle push with Lionheart proved that it wasn't even locked.  Kylari had either been too tired to set any guards, or had simply not bothered for some reason.  Inside the room was a different matter.  At least as far as the book was concerned.  It was a large tome.  Old and dusty.  The lack of fingerprints suggested that Kylari had been using her powers to turn the heavy pages, either to protect it, protect herself, or out of sheer laziness.  Whatever the reason, the book was swathed in traps and wards to prevent anyone who wasn't Kylari from even touching it.

Squall straightened from his intense examination of the tome and shrugged.

"I'd need at least a week to unravel that lot, as well as to be sure that there weren't any other surprises lying in wait."  He sighed.  "But maybe..."  He suddenly seemed to be staring inwards.

"What's he doing?"  Zell demanded.  Seifer turned a cool gaze on him and shrugged, regarding Quistis thoughtfully.  The blonde woman had gone from being petrified to acting as though nothing had happened.  Not that it was a bad thing, just, slightly disconcerting.  But then again, he thought back, remembering how he had reacted and how quickly he had recovered.  Maybe things wouldn't be quite as bad as Squall feared if he were to tell the rest of them...  The thought trailed off into sadness.  Zell and Quistis were the rest of them.  It was still difficult to believe that Selphie and Irvine were dead, and that Rinoa had defected to the side of the enemy.

"If we can't have it, neither can she."  It was Squall who spoke, although the words might've been Quistis'.  The book shimmered and then vanished with a small 'pop' as the air rushed to fill the sudden vacuum.  "The GFs have sent it to a dimension that only the dead can reach."  Zell frowned.

"But all that needs is for someone to die who supports her..."  Squall grinned, but without any hint of amusement.

"The dead see the truth.  No one who is dead will fetch the book for her, she cannot threaten them or control them."  Suddenly both Quistis and Zell lost any and all inclination they might've had to ask exactly how Squall knew.  "We should go.  We've pushed our luck already."

"Uh, how are we going to get them through the caves?"  Seifer wondered aloud, remembering the section where Squall had carried him.

"We're not going out through the caves."  Squall responded without needing to think, clearly having already decided on their exit route.  "Since Kylari's not here, we'll go through the front door."

And pray she doesn't return until we're long gone.  He added privately.

Their luck held a while longer.  Until they stepped out of the tower's 'front door'.  Then it ran out with a vengeance.  Two large, mechanical spiders were waiting for them.

"What the fuck?!"  Zell exclaimed.  "I thought we busted that thing up in Dollet?!  And how come there's now two of them?!"  Squall and Seifer didn't answer, dropping to defensive stances and eyeing the machines.  "Please don't tell me that thing really did remake itself into two new things..."  The realisation had dawned, slowly and horribly.  Zell remembered looking at the two halves, thinking that they added up to more than one.  He also remembered dismissing the idea, which seemed to have returned to bite him in the figurative ass.

"These are what you fought in Dollet?"  Quistis asked, her eyes widening.  Squall turned and threw a GF orb at her.  Reflexes kicked in to catch the orb even before she realised what it was.  "Shiva?"  She looked up at Squall, or rather, Squall's back.  The brunette shrugged.

"I don't know how much use her attack will be, I suspect very little against them, but it will enable you to use your limit break if you cast it on us all."  Quistis frowned.  Clearly Squall wanted her to use the powerful Degenerator spell, but...

"Surely Eden would blast one of those things into smithereens?  And Zell told me how you defeated one of them last time, surely Seifer can do the same again?"  There was a choked snort from said blond knight.

"Yeah.  And next time we'd face four of these things... Or Hyne knows how many if we used Eden!"  Quistis' mouth fell open in a slight 'O' of comprehension and dawning fear.  "No, this time we gotta figure out how to destroy them for good - Degenerator seems as likely a way as any."

This time, however, the X-ATV61UEs were not going to wait until they were attacked.  This time they began the offensive.

Like Squall and Seifer's first attacks in Dollet, the giant spiders first attacks were testing, probing.  Testing their reactions, their speeds, probing for weaknesses.  Zell fell back to join Quistis as the fighting started to get more intense.  It was taking Squall and Seifer's full concentration to deal with both machines, and Zell suspected that they were both already drawing on their own, unique abilities, as sorcerer and knight.

Quistis was watching with as much fear and awe as Zell.  Squall and Seifer were both blurs of metal, shot with the occasional burst of magic.  It didn't help that their enemies could fight with two or four limbs whilst they only had their gunblades.

Considering what Seifer had said about Degenerator, Quistis reluctantly junctioned Shiva.

Squall could feel the sweat rolling down his face, slicking his hair against his skull, making his clothes feel restrictive.  But still he fought, instinctively more than technically, relying on his sixth sense and beyond to dodge and counter attacks from legs he couldn't see. 

The twisting and turning, straining when an attack was blocked, was taking its toll, slowly but surely.  He could feel the energy loss where he'd healed Zell, an added exhaustion that he could've done without.  Seifer, despite having no such handicap, was also tiring fast. 

A sudden line of fire across his arm indicated the first wound taken.  He felt Seifer falter for the briefest of moments before the blond began fighting with a renewed vigour.  Squall was fighting almost completely on the defensive now, able to hear Quistis coming to the end of the Shiva summoning.  A few seconds longer and...

AN: mwahahahahahahaaaaaaaa  thus ends chpt 13 and Death's Angel.  Gotta wait for 'Battle Lines' now :p  Hehehehe, first I gotta decide whether to go straight into Battle Lines, or to continue Hyne's Return ;)

REVIEWS FROM VERSION 1

Reviewer: Redrum

Date: 27/03/2003

For Chapter: 10

Review:  Damn, ya gotta strange way of ending a fic ;) lol

Can't wait for the sequal. I love the small conversation between Seifer and Quistis Go Seifer go! :) lol.

Author's Response:  grins but my ending means you have to start reading the next one to find out what happens ;p 

                    It's thanks to this review that this chapter is mostly unchanged - especially the small conversation between Seifer and Quistis ;)  I like it too giggles


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